Alistair Hardaker | Image: Benton End, photo by India Hobson
Project will prioritise the house’s significance in queer history, after the restored walled garden drew more than 3,000 visitors in three months.
The Garden Museum has appointed Ptolemy Dean Architects to lead the architectural development of Benton End in Hadleigh, Suffolk, the next step in a project it describes as a £5m capital scheme to turn the former home of Sir Cedric Morris into a cultural centre.
The firm will lead the conservation and restoration of the Grade II* listed house and associated garden structures, and the creation of facilities for learning, exhibitions and residencies.
The museum says the work will prioritise Benton End’s significance in queer history and build sustainability into all design choices. Morris was an artist and gardener, and the house was shared with his partner, the artist Arthur Lett-Haines.
Ptolemy Dean Architects was involved in preparing the initial feasibility study for Benton End. Ptolemy Dean is the 19th Surveyor of the Fabric at Westminster Abbey and Foundation Architect for Christ Church Oxford.
The firm said: “The gardens have been and continue to be transformed by the careful re-discovery of lost or overgrown features from the Cedric Morris / Arthur Lett-Haines era, and on the house and supporting buildings, there needs to be a similar emphasis placed on regaining the more ephemeral qualities that need to be rediscovered and established.”
The Pinchbeck Charitable Trust gifted the majority of Benton End to the Garden Museum in 2021, with the aim that the house and garden would be revived as a place of learning, art and horticulture.
Work to revive the garden began in 2023, led by head gardener James Horner. The museum says the historic walled garden reopened to the public in summer 2026 and welcomed more than 3,000 visitors over three months.
The development phase of Benton End Revived is funded by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The museum has not given the amount, or said whether the funding for the capital works is in place.
