All things must pass

When George Harrison first saw the famous Topiary Garden at Friar Park, it was a tangled jungle of overgrown yews. The work he began has been continued by his wife, Olivia, and, now, the display is back to its full glory, finds Charles Quest-Ritson

-  Charles Quest-Ritson

The Topiary Garden at Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire The home of Mrs Olivia Harrison

FRIAR PARK is a Gothic fantasy on the chalk downs just above Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It was famous 100 years ago as the most eccentric and extravagant new garden in England. Today, it is no less famous as the place that the former Beatle George Harrison, with his wife, Olivia, loved and restored.

Friar Park has an interesting history. The original house was built in the 1870s, then enlarged in the 1890s. Harrison's own description was spot on: 'Victorian Gothic Revival, mixed with a French château... really incredible. The same is true of the gardens, which were laid out by a rich and eccentric lawyer, Sir Frank Crisp, between 1889 and his death 30 years later. Crisp's creations included a vast alpine rock garden that covered four acres, topped by a scale model of the Matterhorn, as well as a series of stalactites, caves, grottos and underground passages populated by a multitude of garden gnomes. COUNTRY LIFE was impressed and, over the years, published several laudatory articles about the garden.