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Compton AcresCompton Acres, a series of snack size gardens which won’t ruin your appetite. According to Peter Thoday, top horticulturalist, Compton Acres ‘started life as one man’s passion in the 1920s’, describing creator W. Simpson as ‘an amateur’ and a ‘restless soul’. After surrounding his house with what was then a typically English garden, Simpson had obviously caught gardening fever and went on to build ‘a necklace of gardens around that core which have become the famous Compton Acres set of 5 unusual places.’ These consist of the Japanese Garden, the Italian Garden, the Woodland Walk, the Rock Garden and the Cacti Garden (which became the Heather Garden after WW2). It is this somewhat incongruous collection of ‘rooms outside’ which make the gardens so special and, as Peter notes, to describe Compton Acres as ‘eclectic is to underplay its eccentricity.’ Today Compton Acres is a popular oasis set smack bang within the bustling town of Poole. It now has 12 separate themed gardens for visitors to admire, newer additions being The Palm Court with its tall shady palms and Purbeck stone walls, the Memory Garden, which is dedicated to the children of J.S Beard who saved Compton Acres from dereliction following the second world war, and the Winter garden which houses beautifully textured contemporary African sculptures. The Japanese Garden is a real favourite with its authentic Japanese artefacts, atmosphere of serenity and koi carp the size of sharks (nearly), whilst Stanley Kubrick admired the symmetry and grandeur of the Italian Garden so much he used it as a location for his beautifully filmed Barry Lyndon. Rare sand lizards lounge in the secluded crevices of the Heather Garden and red eared terrapins sunbathe on rocks in the Water Garden - Compton Acres never fails to surprise, there is always something new to see here.
Compton Acres, 164 Canford Cliffs Road, Poole, Dorset. BH13 7ES
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