We recently had a very busy day in London. We drove from North Somerset and parked at the Westfield shopping center, you can read more about our full London itinerary here. The first thing I did with my (at the time) six year old and two year old, was go to the Garden at 120 - the Fen Court building at 120 Fenchurch Street - which is the largest public rooftop garden space in London. The photo below shows the building from the street, with the garden at the very top.
We got there in time for when it opened and there was a long queue. It hadn't occurred to me that it would be so busy on a Sunday morning at 10 a.m, but there were some bus loads of tourists. I say that like I wasn't a tourist but I mean, from overseas based on the languages being spoken. Being the largest rooftop garden in London and being a free attraction, which you don't need to book for, I guess it's not surprising that it attracts coach loads of people. I asked the security guards if there was always a queue first thing in the morning and they said there was, so don't be surprised if you have got to wait. Having said that it was only about a quarter of an hour or so until we were in. We had to go through a scanner, with our bag on a conveyor belt like at the airport, and then we went up in an elevator.
My top tip for before you go, is that you have a look on a map as to the surrounding area, so you know what landmarks you'd like to try and see. I didn't do that, and I wish I had as I don't know London very well. So we got to the top of this garden and we were looking out and I was like "oh, that might be that cathedral... that might be that palace..." I just didn't know if I was looking in the right direction or anything and I had my hands full at that point with two little kids so I wasn't Googling a lot of stuff. (I also didn't want to waste all my phone battery first thing in the day as I was on my own with 2 little kids!) That is what I would do differently if I was going again - I would check what there was around that point and in what direction so I could point things out to the kids. And to myself!
My idea of a garden is perhaps different to what a cool London skyscraper's idea of a garden might be. It's obvious really, isn't it? It's on the roof of a building! It can't be like a National Trust Garden. But I am from the sticks. And so, you know, in Somerset, if someone says garden, I kind of expect quite a lot of grass, especially when it's talked about being the biggest one. But it's not like that. There are pathways and walkways with benches built in and there are plenty of plants and greenery in the centre of the space - but there is a lot of hard material there. I think there might be some water somewhere, but we're not talking epic streams and fountains and, like I say, not a large patch of grass or anything like that. So you're going there mainly for the views, I would say rather than for the garden, but I really, really don't want to downplay the garden cos it's very nicely done and I don't want to give a negative review of what the architects did because it's still a garden on the top of a building and it's fantastic that it's this free attraction. But I think you're primarily going for the view around the edges rather than the "garden".
Ends up I took a lot more video than photos, so I'll post a reel on the activibees Instagram >>
If you work locally, you'd probably appreciate the garden more if you went there more often. And so the views weren't the novelty. Or actually, if you weren't fortunate enough to have outside space at home. It's probably also different if you weren't there with little kids that you were just having to keep an eye on. We took a bag full of snacks because we were on a big day out in London, so we did sit on one of the benches and the kids had their little snack in amongst the plants and little box hedges and that was lovely.
On the way out there was a giant projection on the ceiling - you were outside, but it was undercover in a foyer area to the building - and that was very impressive to look up and see; a nice little extra light show a bit like Outernet (but without any interactivity).
Overall, I would absolutely go to the Garden at 120 again if I was in the area but I would go with a view to looking for things. I would like to take my 10 year old and my husband as they weren't with us and they would probably appreciate the garden (my husband is much more of a gardener than me) and the views, and enjoy looking for particular London landmarks. I usually find myself saying I enjoyed something, but wouldn't hurry to do it again, whereas on this one I would definately head back to get more from it next time.
The thoughts and views expressed in this blog post are the author’s own and not that of Activibees.com or it's operators.
