For further press information, please contact the Pathway Comms Team on  jonathan.lucas@pathway.org.uk

  • Created by leading garden design company Modular and sponsored by grant-giving charity Project Giving Back, The Pathway Garden will illustrate the journey away from homelessness and the poor-health that inevitably accompanies it, towards a place of safety, better health and home.
  • The show garden will be built entirely from upcycled and sustainable materials, including an innovative mycelium wall grown especially for the Show.
  • The Pathway Garden will emphasise the key role that communities and the NHS can play in creating sustainable solutions to homelessness and equitable access to healthcare.
  • Following the show, the garden will be permanently relocated to Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, where one of Pathway’s specialist Homeless Health Hospital Teams is based, and will continue to be enjoyed by patients, staff and the local community.

Pathway, the UK’s leading homeless and inclusion health charity, is excited to announce that it is presenting a show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, with generous sponsorship from unique grant-giving charity Project Giving Back.

Designed by acclaimed studio Modular, the garden will shine a spotlight on the connection between nature, health, and both individual and communal wellbeing, reflecting Pathway’s mission to improve health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness and ensure that everyone has a safe place to call home.

Modular’s MD Allon Hoskin said:

“This garden is about sustainability at every level, from the biodiverse plants and multi-use materials chosen in its design, to the mycelium networks embedded within its construction. We are thrilled to be able to help Pathway raise awareness of their work to create sustainable changes in healthcare for people facing homelessness, as well as provide a place of sanctuary and recovery for some of the most vulnerable people in society.”

Pathway is a unique charity that works extensively with and alongside the NHS and other partners to develop and spread better models of care to meet the complex needs of people in vulnerable groups. It was inspired to create the garden by the experiences of the people who have faced homelessness. The charity’s volunteers with histories of homelessness spoke of their experiences of gardens as nurturing and calming spaces amidst the stress of their otherwise awful day-to-day situations, evocative of the comfort of a home but also public places in which people can feel accepted as equal members of society. 

Pathway’s CEO Alex Bax said:

“Gardens have always been spaces for healing and recovery, whether for individuals or entire communities. With the invaluable help of Project Giving Back, we want to use The Pathway Garden to remind people of the profound health inequalities faced by people experiencing homelessness, as well as the opportunities that exist to create sustainable solutions to this problem. Given the crucial role they can play in helping people to get their own lives onto better pathways, our NHS partners are key to this endeavour, and our garden is also a tribute to them.”

Following its display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from Tuesday 20 – Saturday 25 May 2025, The Pathway Garden will then be permanently relocated to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where one of Pathway’s specialist homeless healthcare teams is based. This will then allow patients, staff, and the wider community to continue benefiting from the reflective, restorative qualities of the garden, and ensure that it’s message of care, recovery, and inclusion remains accessible to those who need it most.

The Pathway Garden will be created using only upcycled materials, alongside methods that support structures without the use of concrete or cement. By pre-manufacturing the components using a modular system, the garden will be installed using less on-site labour and will be easier to dismantle and re-assemble at its relocation site in Plymouth. Every aspect of the design and construction has been chosen with sustainability in mind, highlighting the parallels between environmental consciousness and our shared ability and responsibility to end homelessness. It illustrates that although these issues may be challenging, we already have the knowledge, tools and materials to tackle them and create lasting change.

Pathway staff and members of its Lived Experience programme will be present at the garden throughout the show to discuss the charity’s innovative work in promoting health equality, and the importance of the garden as a place of recovery and personal growth.

Pathway invites all visitors to the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show to come and experience the beauty of The Pathway Garden for themselves, and to witness the care and passion it took to create it, the same qualities can help us build a society where everyone has access to the stability and well-being that a home provides.

ABOUT THE GARDEN

In The Pathway Garden, visitors will explore a series of spaces interconnected by a single path, yet the design maintains an open feel, with the planting reflecting an abandoned, or regenerating, moist garden in the shade of Cutleaf Alder and Hazel trees. The herbaceous planting features myriad shades of green and foliage textures alongside subtle colour dashed throughout. It has also been designed to increase hydraulic function within the soil and be resilient to increased rainfall in a warming and more variable temperate UK climate.

There are over 360 ferns of five different species in the garden, chosen for their suitability to the moist, shaded environment, and evoking a natural woodland setting along with a recognition of the importance of minimising harmful interventions when building within natural landscapes. Carex divulsa has been included for its bright green texture, perfect for setting off other plants.  

Boulders intersect the first section of path, illustrating to the visitor that the journey of an individual out of homelessness onto a healthier and happier life course often features obstacles. The bench, made from the large boule of a fallen tree, and pergola, provide a sheltered resting place. The water feature will offer an opportunity for reflection, echoing the thoughts of Pathway’s lived experience volunteers of gardens as places of safety, recovery and personal growth.

A key feature of the garden is the mycelium wall, made from recycled waste from last year’s flower show. This innovative, sustainable material is being showcased as a building product. With its network of mutually supportive connections, it evokes nature’s networks and pathways below the ground, and reflects the idea that individuals who make a journey towards good health and home often become valuable supporters of others, contributing to the growth and wellbeing of their communities.

NOTES FOR EDITORS 

About Pathway

Pathway is the UK’s leading homeless and inclusion health charity. We exist to improve the health of people experiencing homelessness and other forms of severe social exclusion. Pathway’s Partnership Programme supports NHS organisations to scope, commission and create local Pathway teams to improve outcomes for in-patients facing homelessness. 

In addition to developing and sharing best models of care like our hospital teams, Pathway also works to increase the specialist skills of the inclusion health workforce, influence policy, and reduce stigma in healthcare against people experiencing multiple exclusion. Pathway hosts the Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health, a multidisciplinary network focused on improving health care for excluded groups. 

About Health and Homelessness

Homelessness is devastating for human health, and people facing it routinely suffer worse health outcomes compared to the general population, including dramatically higher morbidity, comorbidity and mortality rates. The most recent ONS statistics show that the average age at death for people experiencing homeless was just 45 years old for men and 43 years old for women. 

About Project Giving Back

Project Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on UK charitable fundraising – effects that have since been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.​

PGB will fund 10 gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2025 and intends to fund a total of 60 gardens inspired by a range of good causes from 2022 to 2026.​

PGB aims to boost UK-based good causes by giving them an opportunity to raise awareness of their work at the high-profile RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as well as supporting the relocation of the gardens to permanent homes after the show where they can continue to benefit the charities and their communities. ​

About Modular

Modular is a leading garden design studio based in Camden, London, known for innovative, contemporary designs prioritising sustainability.

Co-founder & Managing Director Allon Hoskin has over 35 years of experiences in the landscape sector and is a specialist in construction and technical design. He works to oversee and deliver all of the company’s in-house design projects. Allon is also a senior RHS show judge and has been part of the judging team since 2015. Allon has chaired garden assessment and garden judging panels, mainly for and at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Designer Robert Beaudin has over 30 years of experience as a landscape architect working at various design firms in Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, project leading on design and installation of significant landscape projects. These have included show gardens, residential gardens and horticultural parks and botanical gardens open to the public. Robert currently works as a freelance landscape architect for Modular as well as occasional projects for other firms in the UK and Canada.

ENDS