Beaulieu · 2023 · Walled garden pool
The Kitchen Garden
A 1970s pool inside a Victorian walled garden, re-lined and re-coped in reclaimed brick to match the walls.
The project
- Location
- Beaulieu, walled garden
- Pool
- 10 × 5 m, 1 to 1.5 m deep
- Work
- Restored 1970s pool
- Finish
- Reclaimed brick, pale render
- Heating
- Solar panels and heat pump
- On site
- 10 weeks
- Finished
- July 2023
Anna inherited a tired 1970s pool in her walled garden. It needed bringing back, not taking out.
The shell was sound, but the lining had failed, the blue tiles had faded to grey and the concrete coping clashed with the old brick walls. Starting again would have meant months of digging inside a garden with one narrow gate.
We kept the shell, re-lined it in a pale render that turns the water soft green, and re-coped it in reclaimed brick from a Hampshire barn, laid in the same bond as the walls. Solar panels on the potting shed roof now do most of the heating.
How we built it
Fifty years old, good for fifty more
A survey before a spade
We pressure-tested the pipework and cored the shell in three places before promising Anna that it could be kept.
Brick to match the walls
Peter sorted the reclaimed bricks by colour himself, so the coping blends into walls that were built in 1860.
Through one narrow gate
Everything came in by hand through the garden gate, and not a single espalier pear was damaged on the way.
In their words
“Peter came out of retirement to check the brick coping himself. That tells you everything about this family.”
Anna KempBeaulieu · Walled garden, 2023
Begin here
Start with a walk round the garden
A first visit is free and unhurried. We’ll look at the light, the levels and the trees, and tell you honestly what’s possible.