London’s Pocket Parks - Archive Articles

London’s Pocket Parks: Rosemary Triangle, N1

This is about as pocket a pocket park as you are likely to find, being a tiny patch of land on the corner of an Islington road junction that's been taken over by a local community.

London’s Pocket Parks: Cossall Park, SE15

This is a relatively new park in Peckham being about 50 years old created in the 1970s as part of housing clearance and council building.

London’s Pocket Parks: Old Paradise Gardens, SE11

This pocket park in Lambeth is a former gravyeard that closed to the dead 170 years ago, and opened to the living 40 years later.

London’s Pocket Parks: Holly Grove Shrubbery, SE15

This is a long strip of parkland that runs along a road close to Peckham Rye Station which was created by the local council nearly 130 years ago.

London’s Pocket Parks: Vauxhall Park, SW8

This is a park to the south of Vauxhall station created in the 1880s following campaigns that people living in the increasingly dirty city should have access to public parks.

London’s Pocket Parks: Mulberry Square, SW1

This is a brand new linear park in raised beds that sits in the Chelsea Barracks development near Sloane Square.

London’s Pocket Parks: Pegler Square, SE3

This is a smart new pocket park that sits in front of Kidbrooke station's new ticket hall and was created as part of a large housing development going up at the moment.

London’s Pocket Parks: Pedlar’s Park, SE11

This is a park in two halves that sits next to the railway in Vauxhall, and is the result of a school closing in 1960.

London’s Pocket Parks: St Olave Silver Street, EC2

This is a pocket park that sits next to the busy London Wall road, but still manages to look rather pleasant to sit in despite its location.

London’s Pocket Parks: McDermott Gardens, SE15

This is a lovely local nature reserve just to the south of Peckham Rye town centre that owes its origins to the devastation of WWII, and a TV show.

London’s Pocket Parks: Starcross Yard, NW1

A new pocket park has opened close to Euston station, as a temporary space while the HS2 station next door is being built, although, with the state of things, it might end up being as temporary as the unlamented green shed in front of King's Cross station.

London’s Pocket Parks: Kirkwood Nature Reserve, SE15

This is a newish nature reserve in south London, that opened in 2000 on land that was cleared in the 1970s clearance of the old housing in the area.

London’s Pocket Parks: The White House Garden, SE1

Just behind the Southbank centre is a large public garden in full view of the crowds, that hardly anyone knows is actually open to the public.

London’s Pocket Parks: Princes Circus, WC1

A rather shabby pavement space in central London has been turned into a pocket park, with loads more planting and softer wooden seating replacing an ugly brick slab that used to dominate the area.

London’s Pocket Parks: Smithfield Rotunda Garden, EC1

Sitting next to Smithfield meat market is a circular pocket park that was created to provide rest for the market workers.

London’s Pocket Parks: St John’s Churchyard, SE1

This is a large public park close to Tower Bridge that is unsurprisingly, the former graveyard for a church, but also a much more important space than that.

London’s Pocket Parks: Radnor Street Gardens, EC1

This is a pocket park near Old Street that started off as gardens, became a car park, and is once again gardens.

London’s Pocket Parks: Festival Garden, EC4

A large swathe of lawn and seating next to St Paul's Cathedral looks like it's part of the Cathedral grounds, but is actually owned by the City of London.

London’s Pocket Parks: Minchenden Oak Garden, N14

This is a very well hidden walled garden that's very easy to walk past without noticing it's there, and is home to one of London's oldest trees.

London’s Pocket Parks: Gibson Square Gardens, N1

This is an Islington public garden that's famous(ish) for the classical building in the centre, which is actually a ventilation shaft for the London Underground.

London’s Pocket Parks: Harrington Square Gardens, NW1

This is a pocket park that sits close to Mornington Cresent tube station and despite its name is actually a triangle, not a square.

London’s Public Parks: Albion Square Gardens, E8

This is a formal garden in Haggerston surrounded by Victorian houses, with a drinking fountain in the middle, and seemingly created out of an undeveloped plot of land.

London’s Pocket Parks: St Pancras Church Garden, EC4

This is a very well hidden garden that's not in St Pancras but close to Bank in the City of London, and has some remarkable carved wooden benches. But not for much longer.

London’s Pocket Parks: Thornhill Gardens, N1

This is a nice pocket park in Islington cared for by an active local community group, but also a link to a grisly unsolved murder.