It was showing its age. The timbers creaked in gales and were rotting away, the canvas was getting so yellow that the plants could never get enough light. And there were 278 posts! How the exhibitors managed to get set up in there was a miracle. Then when it was hot outside it was sweltering inside and both visitors and plants wilted.

So the RHS decided it was time for a change. They could have played safe and simply replaced the canvas, already three years over its lifespan, and repaired and replaced the timbers. But instead they chose a more radical solution - quite something for a Society better known for its lenghty deliberations and small steps than for dramatic wholesale transformations.

State of the art...
They decided on two state-of-the-art pavilions. Each is 8m/26ft high at the sides, there are over 12 miles of specially extruded aluminium in the roof. There's a new vista 7.6m/25ft wide between the two pavilions from the Bull Ring Gate on The Embankment right through to the elegant 1682 façade of Sir Christopher Wren's Royal Hospital in the distance. Wonderful.

Immediately after last year's show the site was dug up and all the services renewed. Then three weeks before the Show opened four cranes lifted the 254,500kg structure into place; the whole thing was finished in ten days with 16 men; the old marquee took 19 days to finish with 20 men.

Love it or hate it...
But the new marquee is sure to be controversial. In the week before the Show it was compared to a DIY store and an iced cake. But it even as they first arrived to set up their stands a week before opening most exhibitors were appreciating the improved light and the cooler atmosphere on hot afternoons.

It will be more comfortable and more spacious for visitors and with only 16 poles and the greatly increased height exhibitors will be able to use much taller trees and buildings, and it will be easier for them to construct their exhibits.

What's more there are no ropes to trip over, and pictures will no longer have that horrid yellow cast. Hooray!

Photos copyright Graham Rice/GardenPhotos.com