‘“Doris” is the perfect solution – she’s my workspace as well as being a fun addition to the garden’
While scrolling through Instagram, garden designer Jo Thompson from Ticehurst, East Sussex, saw that Doris, the 1950s Fisher Holivan caravan that took centre stage in her 2012 RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden, was up for sale. She got straight on the phone to make a bid and two nail-biting weeks later Doris was hers.
‘I first fell in love with Doris on a holiday in 2010,’ remembers Jo. I’d been working flat out at RHS garden shows and told my children they could choose our next holiday. They were desperate to go camping so an Airstream-style caravan on the Isle of Wight was a perfect compromise. We had one of our best-ever holidays! It was time away for simple pleasures – long walks, messing about on the beach, swimming in the sea – and fast forward to 2021, it’s just the sort of holiday everyone is dreaming of.
On that point, in my work as a garden designer, over the past year I’ve seen a real change in what my clients want from their gardens – everything from a choice of seating and covered areas, to different views and planting for a longer season. It’s the same for me – having been at home so much during the lockdowns, I now also want more from my garden. Doris is the perfect solution as she’s completely multifunctional – my workspace as well as being a fun addition to the garden. She can sleep two in single beds that fold down from a cute dinette seating area. The sink is supplied with water from a foot pump, and for cooking I have a two-ring hob. She’s perfect for afternoon tea and children’s sleepovers.
‘Doris is very comfortable, in fact, at the RHS Chelsea show, when my Celebration of Caravanning garden was the design for the Caravan and Camping Club, actor John Hurt took time out to sit inside, while gardener and presenter Joe Swift nipped in and had a little powernap in between filming!
‘In the show garden, Doris came with a dog kennel, a green roof, hammock and a rill that worked as a wine cooler. I probably won’t recreate those but there will definitely be an ice bucket for gin and tonic!’