We are proud to announce that two of the four projects shortlisted in the prestigious Excellence in Heritage & Culture category at the 2025 Landscape Institute Awards are our very own — South Cliff Gardens and Belsay Awakes.

The Awards are among the most significant celebrations of landscape practice, recognising the ways in which design and management can shape better places for people, nature, and society. Each year they shine a light on projects that not only demonstrate technical excellence and creativity, but also respond to the pressing challenges of our time — from climate resilience and biodiversity loss to public health and community wellbeing.

This year attracted more than 228 submissions across 17 categories, spanning professional, open, and student awards. Together, these categories showcase the breadth of the profession, from planning and design to management, research, and innovation, both in the UK and internationally.

About the Awards

The Landscape Institute Awards set a benchmark for excellence, with entries judged on four key pillars:

• Design excellence – demonstrating creativity, innovation, and sensitivity to context
• Sustainability – enhancing resilience, reducing environmental impact, and working with natural processes
• Value – delivering clear benefits for clients, communities, heritage, and nature
• Professionalism – exemplifying technical rigour, collaboration, and ethical standards

By celebrating these qualities, the Awards highlight how landscape professionals contribute to some of society’s biggest challenges, creating resilient, inclusive and inspiring environments for the future.

Excellence in Heritage & Culture

The Excellence in Heritage & Culture category recognises projects that safeguard and enrich our shared cultural and historic landscapes. Entries must demonstrate how heritage is celebrated, protected, and made relevant for today’s communities, while being resilient to future change.

This includes:

• Restoring or conserving historic gardens, estates, or public landscapes
• Integrating cultural narratives and storytelling into design
• Ensuring historic sites remain accessible, functional, and sustainable
• Creating places that respect the past while inspiring future generations

It is a category that values both sensitivity to history and a forward-looking approach — making it particularly meaningful for our shortlisted schemes.

South Cliff Gardens

Covering 16 hectares above Scarborough’s South Bay, South Cliff Gardens is a historic landscape once famed for its floral displays, elegant walkways and ornate shelters created by pioneering Victorian and Edwardian designers. Decades of underinvestment and severe storm damage left the site in decline, and in 2013 it was added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.

The Saving South Cliff Gardens project, delivered between 2017 and 2024 by Scarborough Borough Council (now North Yorkshire Council), Southern Green and the Friends of South Cliff Gardens, and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, has transformed the site. This restoration not only protects a cherished heritage landscape but also creates an accessible, sustainable and resilient space for future generations.

Belsay Awakes

At Belsay Awakes, our work centred on the creation of a new woodland play area inspired by the history of the Middleton family and the legendary figures of the Wildman and Wildwoman. Southern Green developed the concept proposals and collaborated with Studio Hardie to realise the installation, combining play with storytelling and heritage.

Alongside this, we supported plantsman Dan Pearson in revitalising key gardens, introducing 80,000 new plants that enrich both biodiversity and visitor experience. The wider project encompassed castle conservation, renewable energy and water management systems, accessibility improvements, and new interpretation — together creating a heritage site that feels both timeless and forward-looking.

Looking Ahead

We are proud that both projects have been recognised in such a competitive year. Being shortlisted for Excellence in Heritage & Culture is testament to the dedication of our teams, partners, and communities who worked tirelessly to deliver the schemes.

The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Friday 14 November 2025 at The Brewery, London. We look forward to celebrating the achievements of the profession alongside peers from across the UK and internationally.