Open gardens in London reveal a city that most people, including long-term residents, simply never get to see, from medieval walled courtyards to rooftop terraces thirty floors above the street.
What the open gardens weekend actually is
London Open Gardens is an annual fundraising event, held over one weekend each June, when more than 100 normally closed or hidden green spaces open to the public. Now in its 27th year, the event takes place on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2026. The charity behind it, London Parks and Gardens, uses the event to raise money for conservation work across the capital.
There are over 100 participating gardens across various boroughs, and open spaces include not only formal gardens but also rooftop terraces, wild patches, and community allotments. This much-loved event began with volunteers’ passion to open iconic but locked London squares in the west, and has grown to embrace gardens across central London including exquisite roof spaces, historic institutions, community allotments, and reclaimed and rewilded urban oases.
The weekend makes a clear link with the challenges faced by London’s green spaces, such as budget cuts and climate change, and showcases the solutions and hard work communities invest in these spaces. Every visit you make directly supports that conservation effort.
How tickets work and what they cost
A £26 (plus booking fee) ticket gives you access to the entire roster of gardens over the weekend, with tickets for under 18s at £11 and under 12s going free. Thanks to a partnership between the RHS and London Parks and Gardens, RHS members and non-members can save £5 on a standard adult weekend ticket, bringing the cost to just £20.85 plus a booking fee.
Events and accessibility information for each garden are listed on the London Gardens Trust website, which you can sort by borough or area and filter by garden type. Not all venues are open for the full weekend, so check the opening times before you plan your visit. This detail matters more than people expect. Some gardens open only on Saturday, others only on Sunday.
Beyond garden access, ticket holders can book from an extensive programme of guided walks, cycle tours, and behind-the-scenes talks, each priced at £5 and bookable after purchasing a weekend ticket. Book these early. They sell out quickly, especially the historic institution tours.
Gardens worth prioritising across boroughs
Across 12 London boroughs, visitor favourites include the normally locked garden squares in Notting Hill, Kensington, and Chelsea, as well as historical City gardens like Charterhouse and Middle Temple. Each of these offers something distinct in atmosphere and history.
The Charterhouse Courtyard Gardens are an unexpected delight on the edge of the City of London: think walled Tudor gardens with veteran mulberry trees and rewilded spaces of native hedges and wildflower meadows. You can also visit the on-site museum to learn about the building’s past, which began as a 14th-century monastery.
For something more hands-on, community allotments such as Quill Street Allotments in N4 feature crops including rhubarb, figs, chard, chives, beans, cabbage, rocket, and gooseberries. You can get growing tips from the gardeners and buy organic produce to take home. For visitors from continental Europe, this kind of direct community access to urban food growing is genuinely unusual and worth seeking out.
Expert perspective on London’s hidden green spaces
London’s private and institutional gardens represent one of the city’s most undervalued cultural assets. Many of these spaces have existed for centuries, shaped by the same hands that formed the streets around them, yet the public has never had access. Open gardens weekend is not simply a nice day out: it is a rare act of civic generosity. Gardens like the Inner Temple, which has operated as a working legal garden since the medieval period, or the walled enclosures behind Georgian terraces in Kensington, carry layers of social and botanical history that no museum could replicate. When communities invest in rewilding corners of these spaces or plant productive allotments in railway arches, they are extending that history into the present. The event reminds us that green infrastructure in a dense city is not a luxury. It is a necessity, and one that requires active, visible public support to survive.
Industry perspective, urban green space and heritage conservation professionals in London
How to plan your route on the day
Use the Garden Selector on the London Parks and Gardens website to build a personal shortlist before the weekend. The tool allows you to filter by day, area of London, and type of garden. Group your selections by neighbourhood so that you walk between gardens rather than crossing the city repeatedly.
Many gardens host events including live music, botanical drawing workshops, tours, talks, refreshments, children’s activities, and plants for purchase. Factor these into your timing. A garden with a talk or a workshop will take longer than a quiet stroll through a walled square.
A free printable map is available online approximately 6 weeks before the event, and you can also pick it up at participating gardens during the weekend. Download it in advance and mark your route. Phone batteries drain faster than expected on a full day of walking.
Conclusion: why open gardens London is worth your Saturday
Open gardens London offers a rare opportunity to visit roof gardens, private squares, and community gardens bursting with flowers and vegetables, and to meet some of the thousands of people with a passion for community spaces. No other event in the city grants this kind of access in a single weekend. All proceeds support London Parks and Gardens’ conservation work, and a share of any profit goes directly to participating community gardens, so every visit is also an act of civic generosity. Buy your ticket at londongardenstrust.org, build your list, and go. The open gardens weekend rewards anyone who plans ahead and arrives curious.
