East London landscaping designer Alexa Ryan-Mills is creating a garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 inspired by Sadler’s Wells East, with a fourth venue for Sadler’s Wells due to open in late 2023 at Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Sadler’s Wells East Garden will feature in the All About Plants category at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from 23 to 27 May 2023. Sadler’s Wells East includes a 550 seat theater and will be home to the Sadler’s Wells Hip Hop Drama Academy and Dance School. The venue is an East Bank development along with the V&A, BBC, UAL Fashion College London and part of the UCL project. Sadler’s Welleston Gardens celebrates a new generation of dancers and dance lovers in this corner of the capital. Inspired by dancing and East London, the garden will raise awareness of Sadler’s Wells East. Its plantings echo a dance of layers, patterns and shapes and are made up of distinctive trees and shrubs that carve beautiful shapes among colorful perennials and annuals. Alexa Ryan-Mills chose trees such as Chionanthus retusus (Chinese fringe tree), Styrax obassia (scented snowbell) and Acer monspessulanum (Montpellier maple) for the garden. East London’s manufacturing heritage inspired the garden’s design and materials: recycled or sustainable brick, wood and metal. The curved steel sculpture wraps around the garden, creating different landscapes as visitors walk, sit and even dance through the space. Its silhouette references the jagged rooflines of local warehouses and factories from the Industrial Revolution, as well as the new O’Donnell + Tuomey building Sadler’s Wells East. The gardens are funded by Project Giving Back, a unique charity funding a charity garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on UK charity fundraising. Alexa Ryan-Mills, designer of Sadler’s Wells East Gardens, said: “I’ve lived in East London for 10 years now, so I’m thrilled to be able to bring a piece of Sadler’s Wells East to Chelsea in May. Plants are stars. show is here. They repeat the dance through various shapes and forms and how they are scrambled – in particular, hip-hop, ripples and seeds. The vision of this space is color, texture and energy.” We’ve included some of the lesser-known plants, including some beautiful trees, to start a conversation in the garden where visitors can learn about and support Sadler’s Wells East. I’m really looking forward to bringing design to life and talking about how Sadler’s Wells is developing dance in East London and beyond. “Our new location inspired gardens for the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show,” said Sir Alistair Spaulding CBE, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a great platform to raise awareness of Sadler’s Wells East and the opportunities it brings to the East London and UK dance ecosystem, supporting artists and developing a new generation of talent. Alexa’s design is amazing and I’m very grateful to Project Giving Back for sponsoring the garden. “After the show, School 21 in Stratford will receive plants and materials from the garden for outdoor use. As an affiliated school of Sadler’s Wells, School 21 has worked closely with Sadler’s Wells to help integrate art-inspired activities into the school routine. Together they create more opportunities for students to see, explore and learn through dance, drawing on Sadler’s Wells’ diverse arts program.