Step into Richard E Grant\u2019s garden in Richmond, London, and you\u2019ll be met with a rather unconventional sight. Instead of the daffodils and tulips you\u2019d usually find in an English garden at this time of year, Grant\u2019s space is full of props and decorations from the films he\u2019s starred in \u2013 from Saltburn to Carrie Cracknell\u2019s 2022 adaptation of Persuasion.<\/p>\n
After any job, he says, \u201cI go to the production department and try and buy or bribe my way\u201d 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\u2019s new podcast, Roots. I took a look around it \u2013 here are some of the weird and wonderful things that can be found there.<\/p>\n
Saltburn\u2019s proscenium archThe colourful proscenium arch from Saltburn. Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
Behind a hedge and next to a wooden bench is something fans of Emerald Fennell\u2019s 2023 hit Saltburn will recognise instantly. \u201cAt the end of the film,\u201d Grant says, \u201cthere was a big outdoor party scene for Barry Keoghan\u2019s character\u2019s birthday, and I said, \u2018Could I possibly buy that?\u2019\u201d The production department said no at first. \u201cThey said, \u2018It\u2019s all going to be scrapped and dumped because storage costs too much.\u2019 So I said, \u2018Could I have it in the garden?\u2019\u201d And they gave it to him for free.<\/p>\n
A giant bust of Barbra StreisandBarbra\u2019s best side? Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
Under the Saltburn arch is a prominent faux marble sculpture of Barbra Streisand\u2019s face. Grant commissioned it from a special effects company he\u2019s 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. \u201cShe\u2019s seen the pictures of it,\u201d he says. He met her at a party and showed her some photos. \u201cI had a conversation with her and I said at the end of it, \u2018I have something to confess \u2026 I\u2019ve commissioned a two-foot tall sculpture of your head favouring your left profile for my garden.\u2019 And she said, \u2018You\u2019re crazy.\u2019\u201d Although she did add that it was a \u201cvery accurate representation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Marble columns from PersuasionClassical chic \u2013 a Persuasion pillar. Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Persuasion. \u201cAt the end of filming, I said, \u2018Could I have them?\u2019 and snaffled them.\u201d They made up part of the grand Somerset estate depicted in the film.<\/p>\n
Plinths from Gladiator IIAn ornate Roman skip find. Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
Grant was not in Gladiator II, but he managed to get his hands on some props from it, which now frame his front door. \u201cI was working at Shepperton studios and I saw these plinths on a skip,\u201d he says. \u201cSadly, I wasn\u2019t in Gladiator, but I have the two Gladiator plinths outside my house. I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
A party pergolaGrant\u2019s pergola party pad. Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
Grant says he loves to host parties \u2013 and he has a bespoke pergola for people to sit, drink and talk in. \u201cIt\u2019s really good for dancing and feeding people in,\u201d he says. \u201cI basically bribed four carpenters to come from Gloucestershire and said I\u2019d 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!\u201d There is also a fire pit for when the nights are colder.<\/p>\n
Who has he entertained here? \u201cMeryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Catherine O\u2019Hara,\u201d he says \u2013 adding that, as he has no neighbours, the dancing and drinking often goes on until 5am.<\/p>\n
Christmas decorationsIt\u2019s Christmas all day, every day, at Grant\u2019s house. Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Christmas all year round in Grant\u2019s garden \u2013 silver baubles hang from trees and there are twinkling fairy lights strung all over. He found the baubles \u201cin a shop window display of a well-known perfumery brand\u201d. 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. \u201cThey said: \u2018No, we\u2019d be grateful if you could take them off us.\u2019 So I got all of them. I like Christmas, as you can see. So there\u2019s Christmas lights on every day, all year, day and night.\u201d<\/p>\n
His late wife\u2019s favourite cherry treeGrant with his late wife, Joan Washington, at the RHS Chelsea flower show, 2019. Photograph: Richard Young\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Grant\u2019s 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\u2019s not been able to do that yet. \u201cRationally, I understand that\u2019s what she wanted. But emotionally, this box of ashes is the last thing that I physically have of her. So I haven\u2019t buried them because I thought, \u2018Well, if I leave this house, then I can\u2019t take the ashes with me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
New life \u2013 and maybe a trampolineA canvas for the future? Photograph: RHS<\/p>\n
Grant\u2019s daughter, Olivia, and her husband moved into his home during Covid, and they have lived communally since. \u201cOur daughter\u2019s having a baby in June,\u201d he says, \u201cand because she and her husband chose to come and live here a couple of years ago, I now live this communal life. So I\u2019m a concierge, basically. Do the garden, cook, shop, which I love. The first year of being a widower, because it\u2019s a big house, I was very conscious of only hearing my own footsteps in the house.\u201d The \u201cnext phase\u201d of the garden, he says, may well feature a slide and a trampoline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Step into Richard E Grant\u2019s garden in Richmond, London, and you\u2019ll be met with a rather unconventional sight.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-549054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}