London gardens

By gardens, do you means parks, or private gardens? And are you restricting yourself to the City, or do you actually mean central London more generally?

If the City specifically, then Temple Gardens:
https://www.innertemple.org.uk/estate-garden/the-inner-temple-garden/visiting-the-garden/

If you mean central London more generally, any of the Royal Parks. My favourite is St James' Park (ducks, swans, squirrels etc), but Regents Park is also nice. Some of the small private squares are great to, such as St James' Square.

If you're planning to come next year, consider June - the open garden scheme will be on, so you can see private gardens as well:

https://londongardenstrust.org/whatson/london-open-gardens-2025/

And outside of London, Hampton Court Palace has a great garden, as does Hatfield House.

Not in central London but in the suburbs, Kew Gardens near Richmond and the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley in Surrey, easily accomplished by train from Waterloo to Woking. Instruction are on the Wisley Gardens website.

Chelsea Physic Garden - quite small but absolutely beautiful and right there in London in the middle of the posh houses of Chelsea. https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/

Also: Brompton Cemetery (stretching the definition of garden) is beautiful. Although it played havoc with my allergies! I think other visitors assumed I was weeping with grief. https://www.royalparks.org.uk/visit/parks/brompton-cemetery

Kew Gardens
Kyoto Gardens
Kensington Gardens
Regents Park
Queen Mary’s Rose Garden

Hi, sallylucywright, you might find some information on this thread about London gardens; including London's annual Open Gardens weekend. I love gardens and was disappointed that I couldn't be there this year for that. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/london-open-gardens-weekend-in-june-is-now-booking

A lot of good suggestions here, some to add:

-Fenton House gardens in Hampstead
-Barbican conservatory (indoors)
-St Dunstan in the East (ruins of a church destroyed in WWII with a garden growing inside)

And of course, the Garden Museum, which has maybe the best museum restaurant in all of London- good enough to go there just for the food.

I'm having so much fun with these suggestions, keep them coming! We're going for the 2026 Marathon and while my husband trains, I will be searching for every growing plant in London. I'm a master gardener living in one of the shortest growing regions of the US.
I'm aware of the big places like Botanical Gardens...I'm looking for those hidden gems. Also any interesting places that highlight native growers. Many thanks. SLW

The Chelsea Physic Garden just had their annual Garden Festival last weekend, where in addition to meeting local gardening experts, the garden’s admission was free. We left for Poland on Thursday, so sadly just missed it for 2025.

We’re also going to miss this weekend’s annual Green Meet Festival at the Fulham Palace House & Garden, but there’s always 2026 !

And yes, the Garden Museum, in a former church and churchyard, should be visited. Their changing exhibits are delightful and educational, and their pastry chef in the cafe is supremely talented.