Sir Roy Strong: The Laskett Garden

Sir Roy Strong CH, FRSL, FSA (B. 23 August 1935) is an institution of British arts and culture. Writing over 70 books, and a lifetime of now public diaries, Roy Strong’s outspoken and often mislabelled controversial opinions create a legacy built on a dedication to Art, Culture, his late wife and regrettably the now lost Laskett Garden.

Rescued from poverty by the 1944 education act, Strong was able to attend grammar school which led to him earning a first class honours degree in history. This was followed by a PHD from the prestigious Warburg institute, before he became a research fellow at the London Institute of Historical Research. 

In 1959, Strong became the assistant keeper of the National Portrait Gallery before becoming director at age 32. He transformed the previously conservative gallery by introducing its first photography exhibition – ‘Cecil Beaton Portraits 1928-68.’ In his own admission, Strong claimed this to be the turning point of the gallery’s history which made the national news due to patrons queuing to enter and was extended twice to meet demand. 

By 1974, Strong moved on to V&A Museum, becoming the youngest director at age 38. During his thirteen years in the position, his curation took a view towards conservation and preservation with the exhibitions: The Destruction of the Country House (1974), Change and Decay: the future of our churches (1977), and The Garden: a Celebration of a Thousand Years of British Gardening (1979); the latter of which tied in to Strong’s other passion – The Laskett Garden.

In 1973, Sir Roy Strong and his wife Julia Trevelyan Oman, Lady Strong CBE (11 July 1930 – 10 October 2003) exited London on the tail end of the cultural revolution of the sixties and eloped to a rural property in Much Birch, Herefordshire. Over the next thirty years, the couple built up the four-acre Laskett Garden, the largest created since the second world war.   

The garden became a tribute to their individual and joint achievements, with sections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth after Strong’s early interests in the portraiture of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare after Roy was awarded the prestigious Shakespeare award, Covent Garden after Julia’s commissions and the Beaton Bridge after the publication of Cecil Beaton’s Royal Portraits by Roy Strong. 

UK Heritage is honoured to have acquired selective works from the Laskett Gardens, situated less than 5 miles from our Herefordshire galleries. The works are not only unique in their provenance, but also have often been further embellished by Strong and his wife to add unique colours or tributes.