Royal William Yard

Plymouth’s Royal William Yard is a prestigious re-development of Grade 1 former Royal Naval buildings on the banks of the River Tamar, boasting cafes, bars, restaurants, a museum, art galleries, offices and residential spaces.

The complex is dominated by the Mills Bakery, a beautiful granite and limestone building, which is now converted to luxury apartments, boasting an internal courtyard, which has been made into a relaxing internal garden for all the residents.

Urban Planters South West’s remit was to come up with a design to revitalise the existing beds in the garden and make better use of the area’s vast height, at the same time retaining its peaceful atmosphere.

Our local designer Sandra Johnson decided to keep it simple and plant both beds with a single genus. After determining the environmental conditions within the courtyard, Sandra chose to plant two rows of three 3.5-metre-high Trachycarpus fortunei.

Digging out all the existing beds and refurbishing the existing subterranean reservoirs took a lot of hard work but, as the images show, it has really paid off.