RHS Bridgewater

Spent the day with friends at RHS Bridgewater. It's a brand new garden in Greater Manchester created by the Royal Horticultural Society. They were due to open last year, but obviously couldn't. They opened in May this year. You may even have seen the two programmes on TV about the making of the garden.

There is no doubt that the gardens are beautiful. The Walled gardens are stunning, the rescued buildings and glasshouses are a triumph. The new buildings are amazing. There are gaps in the plantings and there is a lot of growing and bushing out to be done, but then gardens are a work in progress. For me, the let down was catering provision. The queues were long and the main cafe only had 2 tills and staff serving. Tickets are timed. The queue never got smaller throughout the day. There is a little horsebox outside serving hot and cold drinks and cake, but we needed something a bit more substantial. In the end, after our visit to the gardens, we left and found a supermarket and got sandwiches. Which is something that could have been done at Bridgewater, a sandwich bar, self service.
Overall a lovely visit, lovely day, and the catering is early days with room for improvement.