The Artist’s Garden has transformed a 1400sqm hidden and neglected roof terrace above Temple tube station into a place for the public to experience large-scale life affirming artistic interventions and the Women’s Work exhibition programme.

The site has been largely unused since its current structure was built in 1870 as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s feat of engineering which saved London from the ‘Great Stink’ and cholera through the creation of the Embankment to house the city’s waste system and the new underground train system. It is thought to be on the site of the seventeenth century garden of Lord and Lady Arundel, who collected England’s first great classical sculpture collection. Visitors would have alighted from the Thames and walked through the garden to Arundel House, which sat next door to Somerset House and the other great palaces of the Strand.

For the first time in its history, the site is transformed by London based artist Lakwena Maciver’s immersive intervention, Back in the Air: A Meditation on Higher Ground. It is a revelation: of an extraordinary site and of the power of the artist to bring us a glimpse of earthly paradise.  Her intervention responds to the sensation the site gives of being raised up into the air, heavenward and is a contemporary vision of Paradise - a haven above the turbulent world below - an oasis of coloured calm.

The Artist’s Hut, modelled on the iconic Cabman’s Shelter nearby is a space for exhibitions, workshops and artist residencies. Lakwena views the hut as a safe space within the safe space, an important theme in her recent HomePlace body of work where, during lockdown, she painted the inside of her home to create a site of affirmation, empowerment, and resistance.  The phrase ‘Nothing Can Separate Us’ seen painted on the vast floorscape at the entrance to The Artist’s Garden is a powerful spiritual message with multi-layered meaning - profound love, physical and spiritual connections and the strength of unseen bonds.  

Lakwena says “The name Temple, given to the group of buildings in London which stands on land formerly belonging to the Knights Templar, is overshadowed by its now predominantly secular surroundings. But the concept of a temple - a place where heaven and earth meet - remains deeply relevant. They say that the Garden of Eden was the first temple - the story goes that we were cast out of the Garden, and ever since then we have been longing to find our way back. This idea of a subconscious yearning for paradise sits in stark contrast to the highly colonised, concrete environment that now surrounds Temple Station. Yet it is this which has become the impetus for this public intervention.”

About Lakwena

Lakwena Maciver (b. London 1986) to an English mother and Ugandan father, spent the formative years of her childhood in East Africa. She studied graphic design at the London College of Communication graduating in 2009. The name Lakwena, meaning ‘Messenger’ in the Acholi language of northern Uganda, is reflected in the artist’s practice, concerned with the dissemination of messages. Her work explores and gently subverts ideas relating to decolonisation, redemption, escapism, Afrofuturism and utopia. She has been undertaking public art commissions internationally for over a decade and has recently exhibited at Hastings Contemporary. She lives and works in London and is represented by Vigo Gallery. www.lakwena.com

Lakwena’s intervention in The Artist’s Garden is a co-commission with 180 Studios, home to a vibrant community of artists operating in the audiovisual sphere from its brutalist building stretching from The Strand to Temple Place.  The project is realised in close partnership with Westminster City Council as part of Inside Out/Westminster Reveals and with the invaluable support and advice of WSP Global, Vigo Gallery and Northbank BID with kind permission of Transport for London.

Women’s Work exhibition programme

Camilla Bliss: Lying in a Grape

In collaboration with the Royal College of Art/Yorkshire Sculpture Park and as winner of their Graduate Award, Camilla Bliss is showing her first pieces of public art in the form of two ceramic vessels: Marshmallow Dew and Fingery Eyes. More…

Holly Stevenson: Another Mother

The artist’s first public art commission is a nod to the wife of Bazalgette who bore their 11 children in the space of 15 years. Occupying a space in the baluster it is a surreal representation of women’s invisible work in holding up the world. More…

 In the Press

Alice Finney, ‘Lakwena Maciver paints a "vision of paradise" on the roof of London tube station’, Dezeen 26 October 2021. 

Florence Hallett, ‘Back in the Air, the Artist’s Garden, review: A colourful dose of joy on a forgotten rooftop by the Thames’, iNews. 20 October 2021. 

Jordan King, ‘Artist turns secret Tube station roof into technicolour garden’, Metro. 6 October 2021.

Nick Levine, ‘Temple station’s roof terrace has been transformed into a dazzling art installation’, TimeOut. 7 October 2021.

Mark Westall, ‘“The Artist’s Garden” with Lakwena 1,400 sqm Temple Station Roof Terrace Comes to Life’, FAD Magazine. 20 September 2021.  

Natasha Rees-Bloor, ‘A colourful roof and giant feet: Wednesday’s best photos’, The Guardian. 6 October 2021. 

Rianna Jade Parker, ‘A changing perspective: the changing status of Black British art’, The Guardian. 8 November 2021. 

Sarah Turner, ‘Frieze And Fanciful Art: London’s Artistic Highlights This Fall’, Forbes.com. 1 October 2021. 

Will Noble, ‘A Razzle Dazzle Makeover For Temple Station's Roof Garden’, The Londonist.  8 October 2021.