Percy Cane (1881–1976) was an internationally famous garden designer and writer. His projects ranged from a Hampstead garden for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova to palace grounds for Emperor Haile Selassie. He also won eight gold medals for his designs at the Chelsea Flower Show and wrote several books on garden design.
The library gardens are from early in his career and represent his only project in Sheffield, and one of only a handful in the north of England. They were commissioned in the 1920s by steel magnate Arthur Samuel Lee, when the Sheffield house was still a private home. They are possibly the smallest gardens Cane designed (the total plot including the house is about 1100 square metres), and are in many ways a microcosm of his design style.
