Beer Gardens in London

Published 21 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Most London pubs that advertise a beer garden have four tables on a pavement. A real one has grass or trees, enough space that you are not sitting in someone else's conversation, and a wall between you and the traffic. There are perhaps a few dozen of those in London, and almost none of them are in Zone 1.

That is not an accident. Gardens survive where land was once cheap: at the edge of a heath or a common, on the old village greens that the city grew around, along the canal, and in the Victorian suburbs built with room to spare. In the centre, any pub with a yard sold it or built on it a century ago. If nobody has yet explained how a British bar works, our guide to ordering at the bar does; this page is about where to sit.

It also covers the two things nobody tells you: which way a garden faces, which decides whether you get sun at seven in the evening, and the rule that determines whether the covered part counts as outdoors at all.

The four things that are not a beer garden

Being clear about this saves a wasted journey, because online listings treat all of them as the same thing.

• Pavement tables. Licensed street furniture on the footway in front of the pub. Pleasant for one drink, loud, and often removed at a fixed hour by the council's licence.
• The smoking yard. A small back area with a canopy, heaters and a bin. It exists because of the indoor smoking ban, not for pleasure.
• The covered terrace. Awnings, side screens and heaters. This is the one that catches people out, for the legal reason below.
• The roof terrace. A different pleasure altogether, and a different price. Our guide to roof gardens and free terraces covers those.

Which way the garden faces, and why it decides your evening

London gets long evenings in summer. In late June the sun does not set until after nine, and the two hours before that are when a garden is at its best. Whether you are in them depends entirely on aspect.

A garden on the west or south-west side of a building holds the sun until it goes. A garden on the east side is bright at breakfast and in shadow by six. A garden enclosed by tall houses on three sides, which many London ones are, gets a strip of sun that moves across it and vanishes early.

There is a simple test before you set out. Look at the pub on a map with satellite imagery: if the garden is on the side of the building away from the morning sun and is not boxed in by four-storey terraces, you will get an evening in it. It sounds fussy and it is the difference between a jumper and a shirt.

Hampstead and Highgate: gardens where the city runs out

The north London heights have the best concentration of proper gardens in the city, for the obvious reason that this was countryside when the pubs were built. The Spaniards Inn stands beside its old tollhouse at the northern rim of Hampstead Heath, with a large walled garden behind it, and it is the natural end of a long walk rather than a destination in itself; it is also very busy at weekends.

Down in the village, the Holly Bush is up a set of steps in a lane behind Hampstead High Street, a Fuller's pub with low ceilings and a small outdoor area rather than a lawn. The Flask in Highgate has a terrace on the square in front of it and a garden behind, and Highgate village at the top of the hill is quieter than Hampstead at the bottom. Our guides to Hampstead and Highgate and Crouch End cover both.

The practical advice for this area is to walk first and drink second. These pubs are full from midday on a fine Saturday and there is no mechanism for reserving a table outside.

East and north-east: the canal, the park and the Victorian yards

Hackney, Islington and the stretch around Victoria Park have a particular kind of garden: a long walled yard behind a terraced pub, with trestle tables, a tree and a serving hatch. They are not pretty in the Hampstead sense and they are considerably easier to get into.

The Drapers Arms in Barnsbury has a walled garden behind an Islington townhouse pub; the Pig and Butcher on Liverpool Road and the Princess of Shoreditch are both kitchens with outdoor seating rather than gardens proper. Along the water, the pubs on the Regent's Canal put tables on the towpath, which is a genuine outdoor drink with a constant stream of cyclists past your elbow; see our guide to Little Venice and the Regent's Canal.

South London, where the gardens are biggest

South of the river the pubs were built later and with more land, and the gardens show it. Dulwich Village and the streets around Clapham Common and Brockwell Park have several with lawns big enough for children to run on, which changes what a Sunday afternoon can be.

The Rosendale in West Dulwich is one of the larger ones, with a garden behind a big Victorian building and a kitchen that takes itself seriously. East Dulwich and Herne Hill have others within walking distance of each other; our guide to Herne Hill and Dulwich covers the area, which is almost entirely residential and has no Underground station, so the trains from Victoria and London Bridge are the way in.

Camberwell and Stockwell have a different sort: smaller yards behind pubs with ambitious food, the Canton Arms on South Lambeth Road among them.

West London and the river

Chiswick, Barnes and Richmond have pubs with gardens running down towards the water, and the stretch of river upstream of Hammersmith is where London sits outside on a spring evening. Those are covered separately in our guide to riverside pubs on the Thames, because a terrace over water is a different thing from a lawn.

The Crabtree, between Hammersmith and Fulham, is the one that counts as both: a large garden on the bank with the river at the bottom of it. If you are out at Kew Gardens for the day, the pubs around Kew Green and at Strand-on-the-Green are a short walk away and have the same combination of grass and water.

Children, dogs and the conditions written into the licence

Gardens are where families drink, and most pubs are relaxed about children outside even when they are not inside. The licensing rules still apply, and a pub's own conditions may set a time after which children must leave, commonly around eight in the evening; our family guide to London covers eating out with children more generally.

Dogs are welcome in a large majority of London beer gardens, usually on a lead, and most such pubs put a bowl of water out for them. What varies is whether the dog may come inside to wait while you order.

Two other rules surprise visitors. First, you cannot take your drink off the premises: the pub's licence covers its own garden and pavement area and stops at the boundary, and councils can make orders letting the police require you to stop drinking in the street, which our page on alcohol laws in London explains. Second, some pubs switch to plastic glasses outdoors after a certain hour, which is written into their licence.

Food in a garden, and the timing problem

The kitchen is the reason a good garden becomes unusable at half past twelve on a Sunday. Tables are held for people eating, the food orders queue up behind each other, and a pub that serves eighty roasts will not seat you outside at one o'clock for a pint.

The answer is to eat early or late. Arrive at midday and you will get a table and food within twenty minutes; arrive at two and the kitchen is past its peak. If the food is the point rather than the garden, our guide to gastropubs in London covers the pubs where booking is the sensible approach.

How to find a garden yourself

The Campaign for Real Ale maintains a public database of British pubs with filters for features including a garden, which is the most reliable listing of its kind because it is compiled by volunteers who visit. Pub company websites are the other good source: Fuller's, Young's and Greene King all list features and current opening hours on each pub's own page, which matters because these change.

Ignore any list that ranks gardens by photograph. The photograph was taken in June at six o'clock from the one corner that had sun. Look instead for the words that matter: lawn, walled, trees, and the number of covers.

Finally, the weather. London summers are not reliable and the best garden days are often in May and September rather than August; our guide to London in summer has the seasonal picture. If it turns, a pub with a garden and a fire is worth more than a pub with only one of them, and our page on what happens inside a British pub covers the indoor alternative.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the best beer gardens in London?

The largest and greenest are on the edges: Hampstead and Highgate in the north, Dulwich, Herne Hill and Clapham in the south, and the stretch of river between Hammersmith and Kew in the west. Central London has very few genuine gardens because the land was built on long ago.

Can you book a table in a London beer garden?

Usually not. Most pubs keep outdoor tables on a first-come basis even when they take bookings indoors, because the weather makes reservations unworkable. The exceptions are pubs whose garden is mainly a dining area. Arriving before midday is the reliable method on a warm weekend.

Can you smoke in a London beer garden?

In an open garden, yes. In a covered one, often not: the law treats premises as substantially enclosed if they have a roof, including a canvas awning, and openings in the walls covering less than half the wall area. Those areas are no-smoking by law.

Are children allowed in beer gardens?

Generally yes, with an adult, and gardens are where families are most welcome. Individual pubs set their own limits under their licence, and a curfew of around eight in the evening is common. A notice is usually posted by the entrance, and the bar staff will tell you if you ask.

Which London beer gardens get the evening sun?

Ones on the west or south-west side of the building, and ones not hemmed in by tall terraces. Check the satellite view of the pub before you go. In late June the sun is up in London until after nine, so aspect matters more than the time you arrive.

Sources

• legislation.gov.uk - Smoke-free (Premises and Enforcement) Regulations 2006, regulation 2: enclosed and substantially enclosed premises (checked September 2026)
• legislation.gov.uk - Licensing Act 2003, section 145: unaccompanied children (checked September 2026)
• legislation.gov.uk - Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, section 63: public spaces protection orders and alcohol (checked September 2026)
• Campaign for Real Ale - Pub search and feature filters (checked September 2026)
• The Holly Bush, Hampstead (Fuller's) - opening hours and pub features (checked September 2026)
• The Flask, Highgate (Fuller's) - opening hours and pub features (checked September 2026)
• The Rosendale, West Dulwich (checked September 2026)