Sky Garden – London

Having grown up in North Devon, London has always appealed to me. I really like going there, and we are lucky in that we only live 25 minutes by train from it. I really want to start taking Clem to more places in London, last year we went to Corams Fields and just last week I took her to the Sky Garden. It was somewhere that I’d been wanting to go for a while now but just never got round to it. My friend Rhia was also interested so I booked us tickets to go. It’s free, which is amazing given the views. The only downside is that it is quite popular and tickets go quite fast, they release them on a monday in 3 week slots but if you are fairly flexible then it’s not too bad. I only booked a few days before we went. I guess holidays and weekends are it’s busiest times.

The Sky Garden is located at 20 Fenchurch Street, in the heart of the city. It’s also known as the walkie-talkie building, or that building that melted a posh car on a really sunny day. Yeah that did actually happen! We were really lucky with the weather, a beautiful sunny day which meant the view we got was absolutely stunning. You enter through what can only be described as airport style security including having to show your passport!! But once through that you get whisked up in a super fast lift to the 35 floor, I think it took less than 10 seconds to reach that.

As you come out of the lift and walk into the garden area the first thing I noticed was the views. They were insane! I’ve never been that high up in London before and it really gives you a whole different angle on the city. The building is opposite The Shard which you can also go up and see probably the same views the only difference being is that the Sky Garden is free.
We were incredibly lucky on the day that we went as it was super sunny and clear which gave us an amazing view of London and beyond. The only downside I would say is that unless you know your geography very well it’s hard to work out what exactly you are looking at. A few boards with the landmarks and things would have been good. Despite being 35-37 floors above London it’s actually a really good place to take kids and babies. The website stated that you should leave your buggy at home if you can due to space limits however I saw at least 6-10 buggies in there and we were allowed ours. There are three places to get food and drink. Two cafe type places and one restaurant which you need to pre-book but I was impressed with the prices, although we didn’t eat. We wandered around looking at the view, climbing the stairs to the next two floors looking at all the plants and trees.

If you are looking for somewhere different with amazing views of London for free then I can definitely recommend the Sky Garden. Next time we will be going back with Daddy so he can enjoy it too.