‘It has never occurred to me not to work on a large scale’ … Lakwena Maciver with her installation at the Artist’s Garden at Temple in London in 2021. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA View image in fullscreen ‘It has never occurred to me not to work on a large scale’ … Lakwena Maciver with her installation at the Artist’s Garden at Temple in London in 2021. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Art and design ‘We have to become warriors’: the fight to save the world’s only women’s sculpture park With most monuments in London made by men, Claire Mander envisaged the Artist’s Garden as a way to redress the balance. Now, she says, it could be turned into a generic space for VIP events and cocktails
Anita Chaudhuri Thu 30 Jul 2026 12.13 CEST Last modified on Thu 30 Jul 2026 17.26 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google T en years ago, when Claire Mander was studying for an art history MA at the Courtauld Institute in London , she stumbled upon the neglected roof terrace of nearby Temple underground station. She found herself strangely drawn to the overgrown expanse with its stunning views of the Thames and the London Eye.
“It was dirty, abandoned and a magnet for antisocial behaviour,” recalls Mander, now director and curator of theColab, an arts charity and incubator specialising in large-scale outdoor sculptures. She researched the history of the abandoned space, which was built as part of the Victoria Embankment in 1870. Before that, the ground beneath the site housed a 17th-century sculpture garden created by the Countess of Arundel.
“It inspired me to visualise how the roof terrace could become a really special women’s sculpture garden,” says Mander. “The ‘hidden in plain sight’ nature of the location felt to me like the perfect place to redress some of the gender disparity that we see in public artworks.”
View image in fullscreen ‘Hidden in plain sight’ … view over the the Artist’s Garden in central London. Photograph: theCOLAB A survey by Art UK revealed that of almost 1,500 monuments in London, more than a fifth were dedicated to named men and only 4% were dedicated to women, half as many as those that celebrated animals. And of all the public sculptures in London, only 13% were created by women.
Mander kept badgering Westminster council until eventually they gave her the go-ahead. With funding from donations and over £500,000 to date from the council, the Artist’s Garden opened in October 2021. It is the world’s first and only public sculpture garden devoted to the work of female artists. Since then they have attracted 100,000 visitors a year, commissioned 18 major works, and collaborated with 24 different emerging and established artists.
But now, theColab has been informed by Places for London, Transport for London’s property arm, that their licence to occupy the site will not be renewed on 1 October and they must clear the garden.
View image in fullscreen Technicolor forest … Alice Wilson’s Savoy on show at the Artist’s Garden. Photograph: theCOLAB A Places for London spokesperson said: “The terrace and station roof may now require essential repair and safety works, and the space needs to be cleared for the assessment of the extent of the works required. We are working with Westminster city council and local stakeholders to explore alternative locations nearby for the Artist’s Garden, while also developing future plans for the terrace at Temple. As a legally protected space, it will always remain accessible to the public.”
Mander disputes…