London’s Pocket Parks - Archive Articles

London’s Pocket Parks – The Water Gardens, W2

This is an ornamental garden on the corner of Edgware Road and Sussex Gardens that despite its name doesn't contain any water.

London’s Pocket Parks – Cleary Gardens, EC4

This stepped series of gardens are the result of post war clearance, but has an industrial heritage that can be traced as far back as Roman times.

London’s Pocket Parks – Whittington Garden

This garden is one of the legacies of WW2, as it sits on land that was badly damaged by bombing raids.

London’s Pocket Parks – Tallow Chandlers Hall

A curious delight can be found around the corner from Cannon Street station - a small garden cut out of the side of an office building.

A pop-up clean air garden at the Barbican

If you're wandering around the back of the Barbican, you might spy a lot of steel tubes with a seemingly random selection of plants in them.

A memorial garden on the Isle of Dogs

A small garden laid out in two circles can be found near Canary Wharf that was created in memory of those who have worked on the Isle of Dogs.

London’s other “garden bridge”

While the Thames garden bridge gets all the attention, why not pay a visit to a garden bridge that works, that lacks security guards, and rather than protests, when opened was lauded and applauded.

Turning a disused railway into public park

The people behind plans to convert a disused railway in Peckham into a public walkway are seeking financing through a crowdfunding campaign to raise £66,000 in start-up funds.

The UK’s smallest King George Field is in London

Around 50 years ago an association closed its books after successfully setting up over 470 public gardens around the UK.

Photos from inside the SkyGarden

After much anticipation, and recent complaints, the SkyGarden has accepted its first paying customers, and non-paying voyeurs and at last a chance for us mere mortals to see what the fuss has been about.

Visit the Barbican’s garden conservatory

Although as much loved as loathed for its expansive use of brutalist concrete, the Barbican is a surprisingly green place, with lots of open spaces and gardens.

London’s Pocket Parks: Harleyford Road Gardens

In 1984 residents living near to the Oval cricket ground started growing vegetables on a plot of derelict land. Today, 30 years later, while the vegetables have long since vanished, the plot of land is a riot of planting that delights the eyes if you ever wander in.

Take a short walk through Dog Kennel Hill Wood

There is in East Dulwich a large supermarket. The approach through a council estate, skirting a wood, and then through a small grassy area. Yet, that little wood next to it happens to make for a much more pleasant way to secure egress to the store, and is curiously little used.

The hidden garden opposite Cannon Street Station

If you come out of Cannon Street station stop and pause a moment, then look across the road. You might spy an insignificant side road sitting next to the modern steel ribbed building directly opposite. It's worth taking a wander over and having a look - for the short road curves round a corner, and around there you will find one of London's oldest church yards - and now a recently revamped public garden.

A roof garden on the 10th floor of an office block

Yesterday, the private roof garden on the top of the Blue Fin Building in Southwark was opened to let the general public wander in to have a look.

Folkestone Gardens in New Cross

Not that far from where I used to live a few years ago in New Cross, is one of those rather small municipal gardens that pop up from time to time in scraps of land often left over from former…

Northala Fields

As I was up at Northolt at the weekend, I decided to wander over to have a look at Northala Fields - a local community park that has been recently refurbished with four huge mounds of earth.