Lunchtime Tourism: Is there a better City green space than the Garden at 120?
To get you in the mood for out Toast the City Awards celebrating everything that makes the Square Mile great, we asked a professional tour guide to recommend his favourite City spots.
“The first weeks of August,” said American writer Natalie Babbitt, “hang at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning”.
In the ferocious lunchtime City heat, go high. 65 metres in fact. 15 floors above Fenchurch Street, there is 2,200 square metres of verdant coolness. You don’t have to pay, or even book. Just squeeze through security, soar up the lift, and the City opens up for you.
There is plenty of seating, all thoughtfully placed amidst a 360 degree walk around the City skyline. You see buildings differently from here. At ground level, St Mary Axe and the Cheese Grater are overwhelming. Above them, say at Sushi Samba, they are dwarfed. But here, in the Garden at 120, you are at eye-level.
Canary Wharf sits in the mist to the east rising above Whitechapel. Drift left and now you are level the Gherkin and can truly admire its swirling supremacy. Above it the Can of Ham, the shape of a Cotswold piggery, pokes its porky nose into view (fun fact: this is the only 3-sided building in London).
Keep walking west and left, and Lloyds of London presents itself. On its top is a model crane. Why is it there? Builders always leave clues to their story. Richard Rogers, its architect, is no different. Perhaps he is hinting at the relentless progress of the City. Or the lasting expansion of Lloyds. Or a nod to his own genius. Come up and judge for yourself.
In just a few visual seconds you see St Paul’s, the Shard, and then the Clothworkers on Mark Lane clearing a building site to incorporate a 12th Century church tower into its ultra-modern complex. Only in the City.
The Garden at 120 challenges you but also puts you at peace. Perhaps it is the 85 Italian wisteria, the 30 odd fruit trees, or, probably, the 200-foot water feature that babbles contentedly high in the sky.
The Corporation of London is increasingly innovative in this planning space. New high-rise buildings come with artistic merit, but increasingly also with a public offering. The Garden at 120 has had over 1.5 million visitors since 2019, and the Lookout at 22 Bishopsgate has already crashed through half a million visitors in a little over 6 months. Four more gardens are on the way at Leadenhall, Seal House, another in Fenchurch Street and one more near Holborn.
Take the lift back down and look up. All is not over for the inquisitive Lunchtime Tourist. Above you is a huge digital work of art. Part of the community gift from the developers is a virtual garden in the shape of a giant landscape screen. Local artists contribute regularly, giving us a constantly turning visual treat. This August, make sure you ride the Garden at 120.
• The Garden is open 10 am to 9 pm during the week. A real time capacity tracker is here. To book a tour of your own go to the Guide Concierge website here