London City Gardens
Discovering London City gardens might not be top of our family days out list but I assure you there’s plenty to discover.
Of the 19 London City Gardens we visited we found Roman walls, the Barbican Estate, Church ruins and St Paul’s.
I decided to map out a walking route around all 19 London City Gardens.
This walk explores nearly 2000 years of London’s history, with gardens built around Roman remains and church ruins, the gardens of city livery companies, and those made in churchyards and on bombsites after WW2.
It total the walk took me 4.5 hours with stops for taking photos and even a spot of lunch.
I started and ended the walk at London Bridge Station.
According to my Apple Watch I walked 17.5km and made 22800 steps.
It’s certainly a unique way to explore the City of London.
London In 360
The images I took along the way we’re taken with a Insta360 camera and part of my LondonIn360 project.
Since the start of 2020 I’ve been sharing daily 360 images of London on my Instagram page. The initial goal of the project is to explore each and every one of London’s boroughs.
I have developed my own unique style of urban 360 photography which I’ve titled 360 Street Photography.
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About London City Gardens
The City Gardens team is responsible for green space management of around 170 sites which includes parks, gardens, churchyards, plazas and highway planting as well as 1400 trees in the Square Mile. The team is also responsible for Bunhill Fields Burial Ground just outside the City boundary in the London Borough of Islington.
There are approximately 376 open spaces totalling 32 hectares in the City of London that include parks, gardens, churchyards and plazas. Approximately 80% of the sites are less than 0.2ha in size. Together these small, high quality and intensively used open spaces are highly valued by all and offer an important resource for biodiversity in the Square Mile. There is also an increasingly important resource for biodiversity at roof top level with the addition of green roofs and roof terraces.
City garden sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) are areas designated for their importance for wildlife and for people to experience nature. There are 10 SINCs in the Square Mile.
There is a need to protect biodiversity and to provide opportunities for people to access nature through local green spaces.
London city gardens trail
Approx distance – 14km
Start / End – London Bridge
Approx walk time – 4.5 hours
St Dunstan in the East Church Garden
St Dunstan in the East Church Garden is a truly unique space set within the ruins of a Wren church. This green oasis has benches and a fountain with greenery draping the historic walls.
The bombed ruins of a medieval church and Wren Tower made into a charming scene by imaginative planting of wall chrubs and climbers and an effective fountain. An outstanding example of a small City space, which makes the maximum use of scarce resources. Designed by the City of London Architects and Parks Departments in 1971. It won a Landscape Heritage Award in 1976.
Tower Hill Garden
Tower Hill Gardens are divided from London Wall Gardens by the best preserved fragment of Roman City Wall that remains, running c.68m from Trinity Place. The public open space was simply landscaped with paths, grass, a number of trees and a few flower beds but was re-designed in 2010 to create a new play area, one of two such facilities in the City as part of the Corporation’s City Play Partnership. The design placed an emphasis on introducing natural play by including plants, mounding of lawn areas and using natural materials.
Portsoken Street Garden
Portsoken Street Garden is one of the smallest King George V Fields and provides welcome outdoor space for City workers to enjoy. This garden features a central pond surrounded by a small area of grass with a mix of shrub and herbaceous planting. There are several benches including some with tables as well as play equipment for children to enjoy. A large green wall on an adjacent building extends the greenery beyond ground level.
Aldgate Square
Aldgate Square is a new public space located between Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School and St Botolph without Aldgate Church just west of Aldgate Underground Station.
The main square includes a central lawn area flanked by generous raised planters which provide informal seating. A majestic curve of pleached hornbeams provide cover and shade to the southern boundary. A water feature of parabolic jets is fascinating to both watch and for play.
St Gabriel’s Churchyard
The churchyard includes seating surrounding planted areas which provides a quiet area to reflect not far from the Fenchurch Street.
At the middle of the passageway is Fen Court garden, which was re-landscaped in 2008. It is close to the site of an earlier St Mary Woolnoth church, where the reverend John Newton delivered many anti-slavery sermons. A sculpture ‘The Gilt of Cain’, by Michael Visocchi, was unveiled in the park by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to commemorate the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade
St Botolph without Bishopsgate Churchyard
Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation
This large churchyard with a busy central path with an entrance from Bishopsgate includes benches, a fountain, planted beds and two lawn areas.
The parish of St Botolph is mentioned in a document of 1213 and the churchyard was recorded as having a female anchorite in 1413. A Norman church pre-dated the medieval church, which was replaced by the current church in 1729. In 1760 the churchyard was extended to its present size with ground donated by the Common Council.
Finsbury Circus Gardens
Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation
This Grade II Listed garden is, at 2,220 square metres, the largest open space in the City. It is also what remains of Moor Fields, London’s first public park, dating from 1607. The present garden was originally laid out in 1815 to a design by Charles Dance the Younger. Finsbury Circus is an oval garden with an immaculate bowling green, home to the City of London Bowling Club. The garden is surrounded by elegant curved terraces containing other listed buildings, and it is known for its mature London plane trees (some over 200 years old), bedding and fine Japanese Pagoda tree, the only one in the City.
Bunhill Fields Burial Ground
Bunhill is probably a corruption of ‘Bone Hill’, and the area has been a site of burial for upwards of 1,000 years. The Corporation of London had originally enclosed this site for a new burial ground for plague victims just outside the City walls, but it was subsequently leased for a private cemetery. Bunhill Fields was established in 1665 and became the country’s pre-eminent Nonconformist cemetery. Between 1665-1854, when it was closed for burials, some 123,000 interments took place, the oldest existing memorial that of Theophilus Gale, d.1678. Among many important Nonconformists buried here are John Bunyan, Susannah Wesley (mother of Charles and John Wesley), Isaac Watts, Daniel Defoe and William Blake. In 1868 it was converted into public gardens by the Corporation of London, when new walls and gates were erected, paths laid out and trees planted. Following bomb damage, after WWII the north area was largely cleared and laid out as a garden and the south area re-landscaped with 5 railed areas containing over 2000 monuments.
Beech Gardens, the Barbican Estate
Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation
Beech Gardens features extensive areas of mixed perennials, grasses and bulbs, all adapted to tolerate the unique conditions. The plant mixes have been chosen to provide bright colour from spring through to autumn, with interesting winter seed heads and textures. Multi-stemmed small trees and shrubs extend the interest throughout the year.
Smithfield Rotunda Garden
The site was originally part of the ‘Smoothfield’ outside the City walls where jousts, executions and markets were held in the C14th and C15th. Although the gallows were moved to Tyburn in the C15th Smithfield continued to be used for executing religious martyrs and more than 200 Protestants were burnt at the stake during Queen Mary’s reign. A livestock market was held here from 1638 until it transferred to Caledonian Market in Islington in 1855 and St Bartholomew’s Fair was an annual event until 1855, after which the site was closed as a public meeting place. Waste ground for a time, the site was finally laid out as public gardens by the Corporation of London and opened to the public in 1872. A drinking fountain with a bronze figure representing ‘Peace’ was erected in 1873. Geometric sculptural seating was installed in the garden in C21st, with inscriptions relating to the history of the area.
St Andrew Holborn Garden
A timber church on the hilltop site is referred to in AD951 and Roman pottery has been discovered here. The medieval church of St Andrew Holborn was rebuilt in the C15th and, although unaffected by the Great Fire, was rebuilt by Christopher Wren in 1684-90 having become dilapidated. Gutted in WWII, it was subsequently rebuilt in 1960/1. There was a churchyard by 1348, which was full by 1754 requiring a new parish burial ground to be set up. Part of the churchyard was lost when the road was widened in the 1860s and bodies from the old churchyard were exhumed. The former churchyard is now a sunken garden with gate piers of c.1870 at the entrance from Holborn Viaduct, from where steps lead down to the church.
Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden
Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden is on the site of the Franciscan Church of Greyfriars, established in 1225, following the arrival from Italy of 9 Franciscan monks, called Greyfriars from the colour of their clothing. Their monastery had many influential benefactors including Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor, who founded a library here in 1429. Numerous well-known people were buried in the old church, including four queens. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church was converted for use as a parish church. Destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 it was rebuilt by Christopher Wren, but later destroyed all but the west tower in WWII. It was decided not to rebuild the church and some land was lost to road widening in the 1960s. The present rose garden was laid out on the site in 1989 with rose beds and box hedges outlining the nave of Wren’s church, with wooden towers representing the pillars that held up the roof.
Postman’s Park
First laid out as a public garden in 1880, this small park was originally formed from the churchyard of St Botolph Aldersgate, later extended with two other adjacent churchyards, and purchased by public subscription in 1900. Its name derives from its popularity with workers from the nearby Post Office. The highlight is artist G.F. Watts’ extraordinary 1899 memorial shelter with glazed plaques commemorating the heroic deeds of ordinary men, women and children who lost their lives saving others. Other features include a goldfish pond and fountain, as well as flowerbeds and a fine collection of tree ferns and other exotic species
St Olave, Hart Street Churchyard
Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation
St Olave is the smallest intact medieval church in the City, first recorded in the late C12th. A stone church replaced the earlier building in the C13th, and the current building is primarily C15th although it was rebuilt in 1951-4. It has strong associations with the nearby Navy Office and Corporation of Trinity House. Samuel Pepys, who was buried here, called it ‘Our own Church’. There was a churchyard by 1345 and well-preserved burial registers from 1563 onwards include a record of Mother Goose buried on 14 September 1586. Charles Dickens referred to it as ‘My best beloved churchyard, the churchyard of St Ghastly Grim’ in The Uncommercial Traveller. The entrance is via a gateway of 1658 that has a pediment with carved skull and crossbones. Until the early C20th the churchyard had many tombs set in grass but prior to 1920 it was laid out as a garden with a path from the gateway to the south door of the church, with some gravestones set against the walls.
Barber-Surgeons’ Hall Gardens
Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation
The Barber-Surgeons’ Garden is one of 10 livery company gardens remaining in the City. There has been a garden on this spot since at least 1555. Its planting was influenced by herbalist John Gerrard, who was Master of the Surgeons’ Company in 1607. The present garden was begun in 1987 on a derelict bomb-site. It contains the remains of a bastion of the Roman fort (c. 300 AD), along with formal planting and a larger informal area. A highlight is the Barbers’ Company Herb Garden, with 45 small plots divided into four areas corresponding to different uses of herbs/medicinal plants.
St Mary Aldermanbury Garden
This striking garden is next to London’s Guildhall, which has been the centre of City government since the Middle Ages. During the Roman period, an amphitheatre, the largest in Britannia, was located on this site (its remains may be seen in the basement of the Guildhall Art Gallery). The garden is a spacious rectangular site with interesting shrub and herbaceous planting. It contains the footings of the 1437 church of St Mary Aldermanbury, along with a large willow basket planter and a bust of Shakespeare. Benches and other sculptures make this garden a pleasant spot to sit and rest.
Festival Gardens
Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation
The Festival Gardens were laid out in 1951 by Sir Albert Richardson, following the ground plan of pre-war buildings. They were the Corporation of London’s contribution to the Festival of Britain. The site was formerly that of Old Change, a street dating from 1293. The formal layout consists of a sunken lawn with wall fountain, which was a gift of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. This lawn is surrounded by a raised paved terrace with stone parapets and seating, planting in tubs and a number of trees including a pleached lime hedge and a fine catalpa. The gardens were extended westwards around the south side of the cathedral in April 2012, occupying the site of the former coach park. The garden offers an excellent view of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Cleary Garden
Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation
Cleary Garden is a terraced garden originally created following bomb damage in WWII. A plaque records Joseph Brandis, member of the Cordwainers Company, who created the garden on the bomb-site. The area originally housed Roman baths and in the Middle Ages vintners used the site for trading and growing vines. The garden was later named after Frederick Cleary, Chairman of the MPGA, when it was re-landscaped in 1985-88 with pergolas on a number of levels, paved areas and seating, sloping lawn and a wide variety of planting. In 2007 the garden underwent major re-refurbishment as the Loire Valley Wines Legacy Garden with vines and aromatic plants evoking the wines of the Loire region.
Whittington Garden
The Whittington Garden is named after Lord Mayor Richard Whittington, who rebuilt the church of St Michael Paternoster Royal at his own expense in 1409, also founding a college and almshouses. Destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, the church was rebuilt by Wren by 1694. The site of the public garden was on the riverbank in Roman times and later had buildings connected with the fur trade. These were demolished after bomb damage in WWIII and the Corporation of London acquired the site in 1955. The garden was laid out in 1960 with a largely paved area in the west and grass, flower beds and trees in the east. A small fountain was erected in the west section in the late 1960s. The east section is now surrounded by hedge, and remains largely grass, shaded by trees.
London City Gardens References
London Gardens Trust
City of London Things to do
All photos created by London In 360
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