The Piece of Kyoto in Kensington

Written by Sophie, March 2021

Last week I visited the Kyoto Garden in Holland Park. I was hunting for cherry blossom and whilst the garden itself wasn’t in full bloom yet, I still really enjoyed the scenery.

The garden was a gift to London from the city of Kyoto, as a commemoration of the friendship between Great Britain and Japan. In 2012 the Fukushima Garden was opened, a gift from the Embassy of Japan as a thanks for the support of the British people following the disaster that took place there in 2011.

As is typical of a Japanese garden a great deal of care went into to choosing the trees and plants, with seasonality at the forefront. This means that no matter when you are visiting there will be beautiful flowers or leaves, for example cherry blossom in spring or red leaves in autumn.

The Kyoto garden is a tranquil and calming space, although it can get very busy in summer and at the weekends. There is a waterfall flowing into a koi filled pond, with a stepping stone like bridge. There are also plenty of stone lanterns around, and if you’re lucky you might encounter a peacock.

I was lucky that the garden was pretty empty when I was there, so I sat on a bench for a bit to enjoy the atmosphere. I then wandered around holland park and encountered the most spectacular tree simply bursting with blossom. From Holland Park I made my way to High Street Ken and went to see the ‘Art Deco Style’ window installation by Fiona Grady, one of our HARU artists. The geometric pattern of this installation was very reminiscent of that of the ‘London Style’ piece at the Nishura Showroom, but with shades of blue and green, rather that the bright pinks and purples at Nishura HQ.

I’ll definitely be returning to Holland Park soon to catch the blossom. It’s something that makes spring so special and the abundance of blossoming trees in London makes walking in the city so much more colourful.