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Step into Richard E Grant’s garden in Richmond, London, and you’ll be met with a rather unconventional sight. Instead of the daffodils and tulips you’d usually find in an English garden at this time of year, Grant’s space is full of props and decorations from the films he’s starred in – from Saltburn to Carrie Cracknell’s 2022 adaptation of Persuasion.
After any job, he says, “I go to the production department and try and buy or bribe my way” to get pieces to put in his garden. The space has, until now, been a private spot for Grant to entertain his actor friends. But now he has shared it with the world as part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s new podcast, Roots. I took a look around it – here are some of the weird and wonderful things that can be found there.
Saltburn’s proscenium arch
Behind a hedge and next to a wooden bench is something fans of Emerald Fennell’s 2023 hit Saltburn will recognise instantly. “At the end of the film,” Grant says, “there was a big outdoor party scene for Barry Keoghan’s character’s birthday, and I said, ‘Could I possibly buy that?’” The production department said no at first. “They said, ‘It’s all going to be scrapped and dumped because storage costs too much.’ So I said, ‘Could I have it in the garden?’” And they gave it to him for free.
A giant bust of Barbra Streisand
Under the Saltburn arch is a prominent faux marble sculpture of Barbra Streisand’s face. Grant commissioned it from a special effects company he’s worked with on films. Unlike many other items in the garden, he commissioned this piece himself, for the simple reason that he is a huge fan. “She’s seen the pictures of it,” he says. He met her at a party and showed her some photos. “I had a conversation with her and I said at the end of it, ‘I have something to confess … I’ve commissioned a two-foot tall sculpture of your head favouring your left profile for my garden.’ And she said, ‘You’re crazy.’” Although she did add that it was a “very accurate representation”.
Marble columns from Persuasion
At the back of his garden, covered in climbing plants and framed by trees, are some imposing faux marble pillars, strung with candelabras, which featured in the 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. “At the end of filming, I said, ‘Could I have them?’ and snaffled them.” They made up part of the grand Somerset estate depicted in the film.
Plinths from Gladiator II
Grant was not in Gladiator II, but he managed to get his hands on some props from it, which now frame his front door. “I was working at Shepperton studios and I saw these plinths on a skip,” he says. “Sadly, I wasn’t in Gladiator, but I have the two Gladiator plinths outside my house. I don’t care.”
A party pergola
Grant says he loves to host parties – and he has a bespoke pergola for people to sit, drink and talk in. “It’s really good for dancing and feeding people in,” he says. “I basically bribed four carpenters to come from Gloucestershire and said I’d cook for them and, you know, put them up if they could [make it] in four days, for a Halloween party four years ago. And they did it!” There is also a fire pit for when the nights are colder.
Who has he entertained here? “Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara,” he says – adding that, as he has no neighbours, the dancing and drinking often goes on until 5am.
Christmas decorations
It’s Christmas all year round in Grant’s garden – silver baubles hang from trees and there are twinkling fairy lights strung all over. He found the baubles “in a shop window display of a well-known perfumery brand”. He went in after Christmas and asked the staff what was happening to the baubles. They said they were getting rid of them, and he offered to buy them. “They said: ‘No, we’d be grateful if you could take them off us.’ So I got all of them. I like Christmas, as you can see. So there’s Christmas lights on every day, all year, day and night.”
His late wife’s favourite cherry tree
Grant’s wife, Joan Washington, died of lung cancer in 2021. She asked for her ashes to be buried under a cherry tree in the garden. However, Grant says he’s not been able to do that yet. “Rationally, I understand that’s what she wanted. But emotionally, this box of ashes is the last thing that I physically have of her. So I haven’t buried them because I thought, ‘Well, if I leave this house, then I can’t take the ashes with me.’”
New life – and maybe a trampoline
Grant’s daughter, Olivia, and her husband moved into his home during Covid, and they have lived communally since. “Our daughter’s having a baby in June,” he says, “and because she and her husband chose to come and live here a couple of years ago, I now live this communal life. So I’m a concierge, basically. Do the garden, cook, shop, which I love. The first year of being a widower, because it’s a big house, I was very conscious of only hearing my own footsteps in the house.” The “next phase” of the garden, he says, may well feature a slide and a trampoline.
