We are an award-winning contemporary landscape and garden design studio.
Cargill Sykes was launched in September 2018 by Duncan Cargill and Tom Sykes. Drawing on traditional design principles evolved for contemporary needs, our ambition is to create elegant natural gardens with rich expressive planting to complement thoughtful hard landscaping.
Duncan and Tom bring years of experience and know-how from high-profile creative businesses; we understand clients, how to take a brief and have managed complex projects where challenging timelines and budgets are the norm.
We design. We scope. We project manage.
Our role is to provide the creative energy, imagination and horticultural know-how to transform outdoor spaces. We listen and work hard to interpret and set a clear brief from our clients; where’s the light, how do they want to use the space, what’s affordable?
We develop our designs and proposals in steps, making revisions based on client feedback. Once we have agreed a design we produce a highly detailed scope of works for landscape contractors to cost and work to. With a specialst contractor appointed we will oversee hard and soft landscaping as well as sourcing plants from nurseries and growers we know and trust.
About Us
Duncan Cargill
Brought up on a farm on the North Norfolk coast Duncan trained as a painter at Chelsea College of Art and studied art history at Birkbeck. Following a successful career as a creative director in London and New York he has followed his passion for garden design and re-trained at the London College of Garden Design, where his final project received the 2019 student award from the Society of Garden Designers
He remains indebted to his aunt Shirley Cargill whose inspiring gardens at Elsing Hall in Norfolk are celebrated internationally
Tom Sykes
Tom is an experienced and versatile MD. He spent the majority of his career in the Broadcast TV sector, working in senior roles at BSkyB, Channel 4 and Red Bee Media. He was Channel Manager for the launch of Film4 and E4 and throughout his career has had responsibility for both strategic business development and operational delivery.
In recent years Tom has worked as a freelance Project Manager with varied roles in the construction and hospitality sectors, notably with Soho House & Co before partnering with Duncan to form Cargill Sykes.