Mum and I woke up at 6:30 (however, an add on the tube said that the average Londoner will wake up at 6:04am so it wasn’t THAT bad) to catch the tube to High Street Kensington. As per usual, we left a few minutes late and then argued about which station we’d get off at to change to the circle line. In the end we went to Earl’s court, Gloucester Road AND South Kensington – it was a surprise that we managed to get to the Rooftop Gardens in time! This weekend has been theLondon Unlocked weekend when you get to visit loads of building and places around the city not usually open to the public. I jumped at the opportunity of going to the Rooftop Gardens when Dad told me just as I left for Marianne and David’s last night as I’ve been intrigued by it since I heard about it a couple of months ago.
Mum and I only had to queue for a short while before we got the elevator up to the gardens and found ourselves in the Spanish-inspired slightly tacky part of the roof. We walked around the plaster balconies made to look asif you were somewhere mediterrean and then went to the tudor gardens which were very dull and run-down. From here we continued round the central building to the main part of the gardens which contain a dirty little pool overshadowed by bamboo with a couple of tired-looking flamingos. To be honest, the gardens were a bit of a disappointment as they didn’t seem very well looked after. Yes, they did have some spectacular views of London and I’m sure that there are very few sckyscrapers with fully grown trees on the roof but it seems that the garden itself was slightly shabby. The Rooftop Gardens are owned by Richard Brandosn and are used as a venue for meetings and mostly parties. It felt almost asif the garden itself was like a weary person who’d been out clubbing every day since the 80’s. The plants looked lifeless and ill, the various sculptures around the place were broken, an empty magners bottle floated in the little stream and the plaster was peeling around the edges of the walls – certainly not what I was expecting! It seemed that this garden has so much more potential then what was shown today and it has been severely over-used. However, the sheer ingenious feat of such a rare green haven at the top of a London building was still very awe-inspiring and has made this one of my favourite places in London.
Afterwards, mum and I went for a coffee in Costa where we met some other ladies who’d been to the garden and recommended that we visit Peter Jones as they were also part of the London Unlocked Charity. This was a pretty interesting palace to visit as, behind the John Lewis facade dominating Sloane Square, was the story of a famous department store the remenants of which you could spot around the building. Among these were Dutch-inspired windows at the back and a mosaic at one of the entrances. I would have loved to have seen the palce in the 1930’s but I heard that it was a bit of a rabbit warren ....
After the tour, we were invited to tea and coffee in the top floor which had equally beautiful views of London as at the Rooftop Gardens (minus the trees). Mum and I had a great day in all and it really helped me to appreciate just how much more there is to see in the city – you just need to know where to look.
