Five Hidden Green Oases in London

One of the things I love most about London is its ability to surprise you. One minute you’re dodging traffic, tourists and suited City workers, and the next you stumble across a ruined church filled with palm trees or a hidden garden buzzing quietly behind a concrete wall.

As the weather improves and London briefly remembers how to do sunshine, here are five green spaces worth seeking out when you need a break from the noise.

St Dunstan in the East
If you wander down Idol Lane, a narrow cobbled street connecting Eastcheap to the Thames, you’ll eventually arrive at one of the most atmospheric hidden spaces in the City of London.
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At first glance, St Dunstan-in-the-East looks like a perfectly normal old church. Then you step through the entrance and realise there’s no church left at all. The roof is gone, the nave is open to the sky, and trees and climbing plants now spill through the old stone walls and Gothic windows. It’s part ruined church, part secret garden.

The original church dated back to around 1100 and, like much of the City, had a difficult time of it. It was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666, repaired, rebuilt and altered over the centuries before finally being devastated during the Blitz in 1941. What remains today are the outer walls, tower and elegant steeple.
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During weekday lunchtimes the garden fills with City workers. I’ve also regularly seen newly married couples having wedding photographs taken amongst the flowers and trees, which somehow feels entirely appropriate for a place that’s both ruined and strangely full of life.

Chelsea Physic Garden
Beside the Thames in Chelsea you’ll find London’s oldest botanical garden, although “garden” almost feels too modest a word for it.
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Established in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries as a place to train apprentices in medicinal plants, Chelsea Physic Garden has spent more than 350 years quietly growing some of the most fascinating plants in London.

Within its four acres you’ll find Victorian glasshouses, exotic flowers, medicinal herbs and plants from all over the world, all somehow hidden just minutes from Sloane Square.
 
What I particularly like about the Physic Garden is that it doesn’t feel overly polished or theatrical. It’s peaceful and deeply English in the best possible way. You can happily lose an afternoon wandering the winding paths before sitting with a coffee pretending you know what half the plants are.

Barbican Conservatory
To me the Barbican Conservatory feels a bit like the set of a slightly dystopian 1970s science-fiction film where nature has fought back.
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Hidden within the concrete maze of the Barbican Estate, this enormous glass-roofed conservatory houses around 1,500 species of tropical plants and trees spread across multiple levels above ornamental pools filled with koi carp and terrapins.

​Opened in 1984, the Conservatory remains one of London’s strangest hidden spaces. It is the second largest conservatory in London after Kew Gardens’ Princess of Wales Conservatory and the Barbican even hosts music and art events inside.
Entry is free, although tickets need booking in advance, which is probably sensible, because if too many people discovered how incredible it is, nobody would be able to get in.

Whitehall Gardens
Just a short walk from Trafalgar Square, Whitehall Gardens is one of those places thousands of people unknowingly rush past every day.
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Stretching along Victoria Embankment, the gardens offer a surprisingly calm patch of greenery within one of the busiest parts of Westminster. There are flowerbeds, riverside views, shady pathways and a collection of statues honouring various generals, explorers and imperial figures.

I often pass through on my guided walks and it’s remarkable how quickly the atmosphere changes once you step inside. London suddenly feels far less frantic.
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It’s not grand or flashy. Just a genuinely pleasant place to sit for ten minutes and watch the city drift by.

The Onion Garden
The Onion Garden may well be one of the most unexpected green spaces in Westminster. Created by Jens Jakobsen on a previously abandoned concrete corner of the city, it’s now part community garden, part creative space and part urban oasis.
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What makes it interesting isn’t simply the plants themselves, but the fact that it exists at all in such an unlikely setting. Surrounded by roads, offices and the usual Westminster chaos, it somehow manages to feel intimate and very welcoming.

There’s a deliberately informal feel to the place. People come here to volunteer, do morning meditations, drink coffee, attend workshops or simply sit amongst the greenery for a while.

It’s little reminder that London still contains people determined to make the city softer, greener and a bit more human.
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London can sometimes feel relentless. But hidden amongst the traffic, glass towers and endless building works are little pockets of calm. All five are worth seeking out next time you fancy escaping London without actually leaving it.