GARDENS
HAMPSTEAD HEATH HILL GARDEN AND PERGOLA
GARDENS
London’s gardens act as havens for Londoners needing respite from a busy city. To find the best ones, you often need to check out the most unusual places – whether that’s the top floors of skyscrapers or inside concrete buildings. Wherever you are, there’s probably a garden secreted away somewhere nearby – built in an old shipping container, grown alongside an old railway or behind an unassuming brick wall. Take the time to peer around corners and it’s likely you’ll be horticulturally rewarded – London is full of surprises.
CONSERVATORY, BARBICAN
From the outside you’d never guess this concrete structure in east London contained anything green at all. Yet within this temple of brutalism, the 2,000 plants and tropical trees soften the angles in the Barbican Conservatory. It’s a towering space with huge windows semi-covered with vines, and girders and concrete draped in ivy. It’s humid too, with shoals of koi carp swimming in the shadows of the wide, green-leafed banana plants that make it feel more like the equator than central London. Keep your eyes peeled for the terrapins which were relocated from Hampstead Heath to live out their days safe from children and foxes. Open on select Sundays and Bank Holidays, the conservatory also offers afternoon tea. Book for some top cake and sandwiches served with a healthy splash of Prosecco.
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Level 3, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/conservatory
Opening times: 12pm–5pm (last entry 4:30pm) on select Sundays and Bank Holidays
Getting there: 
Barbican (Northern), St Pauls (Central), Moorgate (Hammersmith & City/Metropolitan); 
Moorgate, Liverpool Street, Farringdon
HAMPTON COURT PALACE GARDENS
You can only use superlatives when describing Hampton Court Palace’s riverside gardens. It has the oldest maze, the longest mixed flower border and the largest vine. Until recently the maze was one of the biggest draws for visitors to Henry VIII’s former home, but other features such as William III and Mary II’s elegant Great Fountain Garden hold as many treasures. For kids, The Magic Garden, full of mythical beasts and a secret grotto, is unmissable. It’s not so much a physical garden but an interactive, fun, learning experience deep within the grounds of the Palace. There is also ‘Capability’ Brown’s 250-year-old Great Vine, its longest branch 36m. The grapes are so sweet and bursting with flavour that Queen Victoria used to have them sent to her at her residences at Windsor and on the Isle of White – lucky for us non-royals, it was decreed that the public could buy the excess crop in the early nineteenth century. The rest of the gardens are a mix of ornate topiary, extravagant fountains and vivacious herbaceous borders.
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East Molesey, Surrey KT8 9AU
Opening times: 10am–6pm (last admission 5:15pm to The Magic Garden/Maze)
Get there: Hampton Court Station
ST GEORGE’S GARDENS
This is the beating soul of Bloomsbury, in central London, with gardens surrounded by tall white houses and university buildings. Tombstones line the back walls of the square – although there’s no church, this central London space was once the burial grounds for St George’s Bloomsbury and St George’s Holborn and remains consecrated ground. It was turned into gardens to ‘bring beauty home to the poor’ in 1884. Today, it is popular with office workers looking for a peaceful place to eat a sandwich and tourists wanting to rest their feet. Still, the gardens remain the final resting place for some interesting characters, including Eliza Fenning, a cook who tried to poison her employers, subsequently executed, Oliver Cromwell’s favourite daughter and 10 Jacobites, hung, drawn and quartered at Kennington Park’s Surrey Gallows in 1746. Today, the park features a variety of ferns and is scattered with benches, carved stone angels and old grave plinths. It’s a place for quiet, peaceful reflection, an oasis in the centre of London.
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62 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 6BN
www.friendsofstgeorgesgardens.org.uk
Opening times: 7:30am–8:15pm
Getting there: Russell Square (Piccadilly)
BONNINGTON SQUARE GARDEN
A slice of egalitarian living in Vauxhall, Bonnington Square has attracted a free-thinking alternative crowd since the 1980s. The surrounding houses, made up of tall terraces dating from the 1870s, were earmarked for demolition by the City of London in the 1970s. Squatters moved in and founded a housing cooperative and a volunteer-led vegetarian café. A group of local residents, including gardener Dan Pearson, transformed the bombed-out space at the centre into a garden. Today, it is still tended to by community volunteers. In summer, local kids can often be seen getting their hands dirty weeding or exploring the hydrangeas and agapanthus. The garden is one of the most jungle-like in the city – cool, green vines climb loudly painted telegraph poles, while windowsill flowerbeds pop with colour from the front of almost every house. It’s not quite the bohemian paradise of the 1980s any more, but it is without doubt, one of London’s finest community gardens.
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11C Bonnington Square, London SW8 1TF
www.bonningtonsquaregarden.org.uk
Opening times: Monday to Friday,
9:30am–7:45pm; Saturday 9:30am–2pm
Getting there: Vauxhall (Victoria)
KEW GARDENS
Kew is the grandmother of all gardens, with some of the largest collections of plants in the world. If any new seed or plant species was discovered during a Crown expedition in the nineteenth century, this is where it was sent to and stored. Whether you’re an old-hand green thumb or just wanting to get out of the big smoke for a few hours, this riverside royal botanical garden does its best to appeal to everyone. It includes an arboretum with more than 14,000 trees and a treetop walk. Scattered around the grounds, conservatories and other listed buildings jut out of trees, and striking glass walls reflect blossom and sky. The architecturally stunning Davies Alpine House provides the perfect conditions for the garden’s collection of mountain-loving plants, while the magnificent Palm House encloses a miniature rainforest, complete with climbers and endangered orchids in a tropical heat. The Marianne North Gallery houses the Victorian artist’s botanical paintings from her travels around the world. Kids will love the Hive, a multi-sensory, immersive experience that celebrates the life cycle of bees, with its own unique soundscape reflecting the activity of a nearby real beehive.
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Richmond TW9 3AE
Opening times: 10am–7pm; admission £17.75, children 4–16 £4, members/under 4s free
Getting there: Kew Gardens (District); Kew Bridge
KINGS CROSS SKIP GARDEN
A garden where everything is made from recycled materials and can be moved if needed – how brilliant is that? Run by charity Global Generation, the skip garden is made from, you guessed it, empty skips – filled with compost and bedded with edible plants and greenery. It started as a solitary skip filled with vegetables, but it’s bloomed into a larger community-led project, with kids from local schools helping to weed and plant. It’s not just confined to small plants either – apple trees and bean poles tower out of the skips, while polythene tunnels grow chillis, tomatoes and ginger. All gardening is organic – worms are used to compost and rain water is harvested to hydrate the beds. As this is an area of prime urban land, as it’s sold on, the skip garden can be picked up and relocated if needed. All vegetables are put to good use. The garden also has an onsite kitchen specialising in seasonal vegetarian dishes.
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1 Tapper Walk, London N1C 4AQ
www.kingscross.co.uk/skip-garden
Openning times: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am–4pm
Getting there: Kings Cross (Northern/Victoria); Kings Cross
DALSTON EASTERN CURVE GARDEN
East Londoners always seem to know exactly how to utilise old brownfield sites, whether that’s by transforming them into food truck hangouts or, in the case of Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, into a pocket of green space. Built along a disused railway track, it is as narrow and long as you might expect. The garden does edibles well – herbs, artichokes and fruit are all grown here, alongside trees and a wilder area complete with hawthorn and wildflowers. The raised planters are full of species meant to attract bees, butterflies and wildlife to the area. Visitors who want to get a bit muddy will be thrilled to know that from 2pm on Saturdays the garden welcomes volunteers. The Curve Garden also has a staggeringly good wood-burning pizza oven, served alongside wine, cake and coffee, so you can get your daily fix and support the community at the same time. Easy.
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13 Dalston Lane, London E8 3DF
Opening times: Thursday to Sunday, 11am–7pm;
Friday/Saturday 11am–10pm
Getting there: Dalston Junction
THE ROOKERY
Streatham Common has a secret. Past the tree-lined playing fields, past the groups of young professionals playing ultimate frisbee and beyond the park café serving ice cream, there’s a hilltop landscaped Green Flag garden known as The Rookery. At the hill’s crown, there’s a thick ring of beech and oak trees which open out onto a manicured lawn and wooden pergola threaded with blossoming plants. Magnolia lead you along the pergola towards a tumbling stream, complete with a fountain. Another larger pond leads to an old English manicured garden, festooned with peonies and marigolds, azaleas and Japanese bamboo, while the lawns are often used for outdoor theatre. The White Garden, opened to the public in 1913, contains, as its name suggests, only white plants, which contrast with the red brickwork and green beds. It’s a walled garden and a place of peace and contemplation.
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Covington Way, London SW16 3BX
Opening times: 7:30am–dusk
Getting there: Streatham Common
HAMPSTEAD HEATH HILL GARDEN AND PERGOLA
Overlooking the West Heath, there’s a large stone pergola dominating the surrounding trees and meadows, a stunning Edwardian feature elevating the rugged lands to classical elegance. The Pergola took nearly two decades to complete and Londoners today must bless the mad dreams of the eccentric Lord Leverhulme who wanted a place to hold extravagant parties and to spend long summer nights with his friends and family. The resulting Hill Pergola is an architectural gem, which wouldn’t look out of place in Tuscany, its height, structure and creation made possible by the soil dug up to build the Northern Line tube extension. Over the years, the Pergola has fallen into disrepair, but that’s part of the charm. No longer the playground for north London’s rich socialites, the Pergola is a proper Romeo and Juliet structure for everyone to enjoy.
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The Pergola, Inverforth Cl, London NW3 7EX
Opening times: Dawn to dusk
Getting there: Hampstead (Northern Line)
SKY GARDEN
Located in the building known locally as ‘The Walkie-Talkie’, London’s highest public garden involves taking a stomach-churning, breathtaking lift to the top of 20 Fenchurch Street. Ranged over three floors and with 360-degree views across London, the Sky Garden features North African and Mediterranean plants and is designed to resemble a mountain slope, although as the plants are not quite fully grown, it feels more like a rockery than a pasture. Visitors are given 1.5 hours to explore the gardens and sit and chat, but you’re probably here less for the horticulture and more for the novelty of exploring or eating and drinking in a garden in the sky. It’s free to visit, but just remember to book a time slot before you go.
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20 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 8AF
www.skygarden.london/sky-garden
Opening times: Monday to Friday, 10am–6pm; Saturday/Sunday, 11am–9pm
Getting there: Monument (Circle/District), Bank (Central/Northern/DLR); Fenchurch Street, Cannon Street, London Bridge
