Who Invented the Garden Bench?

Did you ever wonder where the garden bench came from? Who invented such a wonderful piece of furniture?

The mystery of the garden bench is as old as....well, the human being. To be sure, in ages past, men and women did not spend the bulk of their day inside comfortable air conditioned homes and buildings, as we unfortunately do today. By duty (farming) and leisure, they often found themselves in the garden. And while nothing compares to the joy of a calm stroll through nature's best, with a cool breeze and a warm sun upon your face, after a while, you just want to take a seat. Ancient men and women obviously recognized this. And as far back as we can tell, gardens were always accompanied by...garden benches.

So the first answer to our question about who invented the garden bench is simply this: the human. It is fascinating to think of the wonderful mystery that is the human being, who, while so alike to the animals in countless ways, is even more so unlike them. For, the inventing and building of garden furniture seems natural enough to us, it is so foreign to the animal world that we do not find even the slightest example of a crooked seat or a rustic bench among the animals. No, these artificial props that we fill our surroundings with for our own comfort and daily use are all our own doing – an invention of the noble human spirit.

Ancient civilizations had garden benches. We see in this image above an example of a Greek couple sitting on a garden bench playing the lyre, a musical instrument common to that era, while a friend listens. We see how the bench provides for them the perfect setting for culture and music. So, in this sense the garden bench is for us a place to interact and socialize – indeed to build the culture of the arts. And we all can recognize the inspiration that comes from nature when creating music or art – so it is fitting that our benches and furniture be placed among such beauty and inspiration. The garden serves, then, not only as a place to put great outdoor benches, but to put them to good use – either in rest and relaxation, or in the enjoyment of music and art.

Many different architects and engineers through the ages would produce various kinds of bench designs – from the functionally practical to the gloriously ornate. Some invented benches of unmatched physical stature – whose design lent itself to enduring construction. These kinds of designs became structurally practical and made the garden bench able to withstand years of use. Others took such foundations and created fantastic design and ornate artistic embellishments so that the practical garden bench also became a work of art. Each of these garden bench designs had their time – and the best survive to our day.

So, the garden bench is indeed ancient, though modern technology has allowed us to keep the best of the past and combine it with the best of today. The invention of the garden bench, buried deep in our history, has served as an enduring part of the human experience – at least for those who regularly experience the outdoors and gardens. Today, a wide variety of garden benches are available for those who would like to make this ancient tradition their own.

All Garden Benches provides a wide variety of garden benches for this purpose. We hope you get a chance to purchase one of our great outdoor benches and, as you put it into your garden or outdoor space, reminisce of those ancient men and women who have for ages enjoyed the garden as you do today. You will be seated beside some wonderful company.