London’s Pocket Parks - Archive Articles

London’s Pocket Parks: Prince’s Gardens, SW7

This is a large garden square near South Kensington's museums but hidden away behind rows of houses so only the locals know about it.

London’s Pocket Parks: Barnsbury Wood, N1

Described as London's smallest nature reserve, this patch of woodland is hidden behind a triangle of Georgian houses in Islington, and only open to the public for 2 hours a week.

London’s Pocket Parks: Olympic Ring Park, N1C

A small roadside park alongside St Pancras Station has something hidden in the bushes - pieces of the London 2012 Olympic rings.

London’s Pocket Parks: Calthorpe Community Garden, WC1

This community park and allotments on Grays Inn Road is a legacy of campaigning to prevent an office block from being built here.

London’s Pocket Parks: Leathermarket Gardens, SE1

This largish park near London Bridge is the result of post-WW2 clearance when most of the site was flattened by bombs.

London’s Pocket Parks: Salters’ Gardens, EC2

This is a sunken garden not far from the Barbican that until recently was a little known space hidden from view by 1970s office blocks.

London’s Pocket Parks: Charlton station

This is a pocket park that sits next to Charlton station in southeast London and was created in 2013 as the first site of a local community gardens group.

London’s Pocket Parks: Holy Trinity Brompton churchyard

Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of busy Knightsbridge is this large open churchyard that's an oasis of calm.

London’s Pocket Parks: King Square Gardens, EC1

This is a large municipal park surrounded by tower blocks that was once a middle-class Georgian housing development and later gained fame for some marching hammers.

London’s Pocket Parks: All Hallows Church, EC2

This is a narrow stony pocket park with raised beds of flowers that sits on an old church graveyard overlooking London Wall.

London’s Pocket Parks: Artizan Street, E1

This is a deceptively simple-looking pocket park if you aren't aware of what used to be here - it used to be an ugly car park ramp.

London’s Pocket Parks: Willow Street, EC2

This Shoreditch based pocket park is relatively new sitting on top of what had been a service ramp to an underground car park.

London’s Pocket Parks: Graham Street Park, N1

This is today a modest park with a playground that conveniently faces onto a canal dock, but was once mainly industrial.

London’s Pocket Parks: Worship Square, EC2

This is a brand new pocket park in Shoreditch that was once a road and motorbike parking space.

London’s Pocket Parks: St Alfege Park, SE10

Greenwich is famous for its Royal Park, but right in the town centre is another park, hidden behind the church and surrounded by high walls.

London’s Pocket Parks: All Hallows Church and Community Garden, SE1

This small garden on the site of a bombed-out church in the side streets of Southwark also has links to the origins of 1980s synthpop music.

London’s Pocket Parks: Southwood Garden, W1

This pocket park sitting next to St James Church in Piccadilly is unsurprising, a former graveyard, but was laid out as a garden after WW2.

London’s Pocket Parks: Camden Gardens, NW1

A decent-sized triangle of land next to Camden Road station, with the railway running through the middle of it, on arches.

London’s Pocket Parks: Mallon Gardens, E1

This is a newish garden that has emerged from behind fencing following the restoration of the historic Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel.

London’s Pocket Parks, Rennie Garden, SE1

This pocket park is named after John Rennie, the engineer who built the original Waterloo Bridge, and designed the original Southwark Bridge, and the previous London Bridge.

London’s Pocket Parks: Old Street Yard, EC1

This is a new pocket park that came into existence as part of the redevelopment of Trans World House, a dreary 1960s office block that used to be on this corner of the Old Street roundabout.

London’s Pocket Parks: Moor Lane Community Garden, EC2

A pocket park worthy of the name has appeared next to the Barbican and is a few pot plants in a few concrete pots.

London’s Pocket Parks: Cavell Street Garden, E1

A side street in Shadwell has a small pocket park with gates leading to a space once filled with housing.

London’s Pocket Parks: Basil Hume memorial garden, EC1

A short walk from the Barbican is a small perfectly formed little garden created in memory of Basil Hume, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster from 1979 until his death in 1999.