Parks and Gardens
London is one of Europe's greenest capitals. The Royal Parks, the wild heaths and the great botanical gardens, with what to see, where to eat and how to get there.
London is one of the greenest capitals in Europe, and its parks are among the best reasons to visit. The Royal Parks, the wild heaths in the north and the botanical gardens at Kew offer everything from boating lakes and rose gardens to herds of deer and views across the whole city. Most of them are free to enter and easy to reach by public transport.
68 guides in this section.
The Royal Parks and beyond
Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens
The Serpentine, the Italian Gardens and big seasonal events.
Regent's Park and Primrose Hill
Rose gardens, the canal and a famous free view.
St James's Park and Green Park
Pelicans, palace views and the royal walk.
Richmond Park
Wild deer, a protected view and Isabella Plantation.
Hampstead Heath
Parliament Hill, the ponds and Kenwood House.
Kew Gardens
Glasshouses, the treetop walkway and the seasons.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
More green space
Greenwich Park
The best free view in south London, and deer behind a fence.
Battersea Park
A boating lake, a peace pagoda and a zoo small enough for toddlers.
Holland Park and the Kyoto Garden
Peacocks, a Japanese garden, and far fewer people.
Victoria Park
East London's own park, with a food market inside it on Sundays.
Clapham Common and Brockwell Park
Two commons, a listed lido and a very good view of the city.
Bushy Park
Deer and open sky, with a fraction of Richmond's crowds.
Crystal Palace Park
Victorian concrete dinosaurs, standing since 1854.
Chelsea Physic Garden
A walled garden of medicinal plants since 1673, shut on Saturdays.
Epping Forest
Ancient forest near the end of the Central line, free all year.
Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath
A windmill, sandy paths and very little signposting.
Swimming Ponds and Lidos in London
Where to swim outdoors, what it costs and how cold it gets.
Roof Gardens and Free Terraces
Getting above the street without paying at the door.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Smaller and stranger green spaces
Postman's Park
A wall of plaques to people who died saving strangers.
The Isabella Plantation
Azaleas and streams hidden inside Richmond Park.
WWT London Wetland Centre
Reedbed and otters, one bus from Hammersmith.
The Hampstead Pergola and Hill Garden
A crumbling Edwardian walkway, free and usually empty.
London's Secret Gardens
The walled and hidden gardens visitors walk straight past.
Camley Street Natural Park and Urban Nature
A nature reserve wedged between a canal and the railway.
Morden Hall Park and South London's Estates
A free Trust estate at the end of the Northern line.
The Magnificent Seven Cemeteries
Seven overgrown Victorian cemeteries, six of them free.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Green London by season
Cherry Blossom in London
Where it is, roughly when, and the streets that beat the parks.
Autumn Colour in London
When the colour comes, and where it is strongest.
Running Routes in London
Routes from the hotel districts, with distances, plus parkrun.
How Long Does Kew Gardens Take?
What three hours covers, and which gate to start from.
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
Wrong in ways that are now the whole point. Free and outdoors.
Severndroog Castle and Oxleas Wood
A folly, a view over seven counties, and a steep walk.
Bunhill Fields and London's Dissenters
Blake, Defoe and Bunyan, in a graveyard for outsiders.
Walthamstow Wetlands
Working reservoirs, free entry, and close to the Victoria line.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Cemeteries that are now the best parks
Abney Park Cemetery
Gone half wild, with a restored chapel at the middle. Free.
Nunhead Cemetery and One Tree Hill
A cleared avenue aimed at St Paul's, and a better view up the hill.
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
A nature reserve over 350,000 graves, five minutes from Mile End.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
South London green space worth the train
Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye
Boats in one, Blake's angels in the other, twenty minutes apart.
Beckenham Place Park and Its Swimming Lake
A swimming lake half an hour out. Yes, it is cold.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
The woods and parks of the Northern Heights
Highgate Wood and Queen's Wood
Ancient woodland split by a road. One is busy, one is not.
Alexandra Park and the Parkland Walk
A dismantled railway in two halves, ending at the best free view up north.
Golders Hill Park and Its Free Zoo
Wallabies, a walled garden and a bandstand, all free.
Trent Park and Enfield Chase
Royal hunting ground, and the bugged mansion is now a museum.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Water, glass and the Lee
The Lee Valley Regional Park
Twenty-six miles along London's other river. The bits worth a day.
The Barbican Conservatory
A jungle under glass over a theatre, free, but only on some days.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Squares you can walk into
Soho Square and Golden Square
Two Soho squares, free, and locked at a time that changes every few weeks.
Bedford Square and the Bloomsbury Squares
Which are open, which are locked, and the walk that links six.
Berkeley Square and the Mayfair Squares
Plane trees from the 1780s, and the quietest free seats in Mayfair.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Gardens the size of a room
The Phoenix Garden and St Giles
The only frogs in the West End, in a garden behind a theatre.
Bonnington Square and the Gardens of Vauxhall
A square the neighbours replanted, and a pleasure garden next door.
The Culpeper Community Garden
Forty-six plots and a pond, beside the Angel traffic. Free.
The City's Smallest Gardens
Two hundred pockets of green, most the size of a room. The best dozen.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Free views the guidebooks miss
Point Hill and the Views Above Greenwich
A better skyline than the Observatory, and nobody there.
Telegraph Hill and the Views of South London
The City laid out from a New Cross ridge. Free, and quiet.
Horsenden Hill and the Views of West London
Ealing's high point, an Iron Age fort, and a view to the Chilterns.
The Great Trees of London
Sixty-one trees on an official list. Which are worth the journey.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Water that is not the Thames
The Limehouse Cut
London's oldest canal, two straight miles, and almost nobody on it.
The Hertford Union Canal
A mile and a quarter, three locks, and a pub at each end.
The Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal
Thirteen miles without a single lock. Which stretch is worth it.
Deptford Creek
You can walk in the river bed at low tide, with a guide.
The New River Path
A 400-year-old water channel with a footpath. The best London stretches.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Green space at the edge of the map
Ruislip Lido
A sand beach and a miniature railway on the Met's Uxbridge branch.
Rainham Marshes
Old firing ranges turned bird reserve, forty minutes out.
Wanstead Flats
Epping Forest's flat southern end, with skylarks and no toilets.
Burgess Park
Built from bombed streets and a filled-in canal. No barbecues.
Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park
Marsh and dragonflies behind the O2. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Woodberry Wetlands
A reservoir opened to the public in 2016, with a cafe in a stable.
Waterlow Park and Lauderdale House
A garden for the gardenless, three ponds, and a house with a cafe.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.