The Franciscan Gardens is a partially reconstructed heritage tourist site at the location of England’s first Franciscan friary in Canterbury. This article uncovers the ways in which the site utilizes theatrical and performative strategies and modes of representation to recirculate its histories. The conserved built environment, the labor of the gardeners, the gardens themselves, and the herbs and flowers that can be found within them, all foreground and perform the aura of the site’s pastness. These performances invest horticultural practice with an institutional continuity that traces back to the friary’s medieval origins. The article ultimately argues for a conception of the Franciscan Gardens as a dynamic and ongoing performance event which requires reciprocal relationships of care and attention between gardeners, heritage professionals, visitors, wildlife, and other nonhuman agents.
Alex Baines (Fri,) studied this question.