London Open Gardens weekend in June is now booking

If you are a fan of the "whoopsie daisy" scene and garden from the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant movie "Notting Hill", the private Rosmead Garden (where the scene was filmed) is part of the Open Gardens list. It is a very pretty space, and it was fun to see where the various movie scenes were filmed.

Ooh, Sharon, that would be lovely to see. It really is killing me that I won't be there!

Mardee- don’t forget that the National Garden Scheme will have some gardens open around the country while you’re here.
https://ngs.org.uk/

Thanks, Mardee. I arrive for my first visit to London on June 5 - perfect!

Quite a few that are probably really interesting. A couple of picks from me -

https://londongardenstrust.org/log2025/gardens/CharterH.html

The Charterhouse is a really old building in the Clerkenwell area. There's seven acres of garden to see seemingly. A rare chance.

https://londongardenstrust.org/log2025/gardens/Bankside.html

49 Bankside looks fascinating. I assume it's in the same row of ancient houses as the house where Sir Christopher Wren supposedly lived while St Paul's was built, just across the river. Accessed by London's narrowest street, Cardinal Cap Alley.
eta: I knew there was a man of the cloth lived in that row of houses too. I used to see him when I worked around there. I thought it was The Bishop of Southwark, but it is in fact The Dean of Southwark Cathedral. I'm not sure if 49 is part of "The Deanery".

edited again, sorry: 49 appears to be Christopher Wren's house. I think The Deanery may be 51 and / or 53.

If anyone else wants to click through the participating gardens and post them here it would be good to hear about any that appeal to you.

Oh, there’s all sounds so wonderful, Gerry!

Janet, that’s so great that you’re going to be there! I’m jealous.

John, I will take a look, but I have a feeling since I’ve got my two grandkids with me and we’re in London for the whole 10 days, it will be difficult to get out into the countryside to see some of them. But maybe on a future trip I can just plan on it and work my trip around seeing gardens in London and all over the country. That would be absolutely wonderful!

If anyone else wants to click through the participating gardens and post them here it would be good to hear about any that appeal to you.

I'm not going to do that, but one that especially interests me is The Barbican. At any time of year the Barbican is always a treat to go through with it's gardens. When I worked in London that was one of my little bolt holes, not only when going to a concert or other event there.

I've tried to interest people on the forum several times with the National Gardens Scheme (especially in Cumbria) but have had no interest at all. The glory (or the problem) of the NGS is that it takes you off the normal tourist trail, so in Cumbria way off the comfortable little bubble of places most tourists go to. But doing so introduces you to many glorious parts of the county you wouldn't otherwise visit. Locally to me at least two gardens I know (including the one I am heavily involved with) are not in the NGS this year. The reason being you have to commit to specific dates a year ahead of time, and it is a lot of work at a time of year when we are busy with Britain in Bloom and Green Flag.

Don’t rule out there being gardens in London open when you’re here Mardee. There are gardens open all the time and all over the place from about this time of the year through to the end of the Summer. But maybe the grandkids wouldn’t be thrilled by the prospect!

Thanks for posting this.

I'm not going to do that, but one that especially interests me is The Barbican. At any time of year the Barbican is always a treat to go through with it's gardens. When I worked in London that was one of my little bolt holes, not only when going to a concert or other event there.

I think the garden participating at The Barbican is usually residents only. They have a "Garden poet" in attendance.

https://londongardenstrust.org/log2025/gardens/BarbicanW.html

The Barbican Conservatory is worth a visit outside of this event too. I didn't realise public opening was quite restricted. I've only been the once several years ago and it must have been on a public opening day by coincidence. You can check dates here -

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/visit-the-conservatory

There's quite a few of these sites off the beaten track in London in some more unusual postcodes. I've put it in my calendar to see if I fancy visiting a garden listed anyway. Almost every one has some sort of interest.

One last one from me is new for this year - Moat Community Garden at Millbank on the historic Millbank Estate. It seems to be a collaboration between Tate Britain, Chelsea College of Art and residents on the estate. Some activities planned for the weekend.

https://londongardenstrust.org/log2025/gardens/Moat.html

John, you're right in that the grandkids would probably not be interested, but that could apply to a lot of things, so I'm not discounting anything. That said, I went to the NGS website to search for London gardens and unfortunately, most are not opening until April 6 or later, which is when we're leaving London. So I think the time of year is somewhat prohibitive now.

But maybe another day. Really, it's been a dream of mine for a while to tour England in May or June and find all the gardens. :-)