Sky Garden

Top choice in London

LoginSave

The ferns, fig trees and purple African lilies that clamber up the final three storeys of the 'Walkie Talkie' skyscraper are mere wallflowers at this 155m-high rooftop garden – it's the extraordinary 360-degree views of London that make this vast, airport-terminal-like space so popular. The Sky Garden has front-row seats overlooking the Shard and vistas that gallop for miles east and west. Visits must be booked online in advance, and tickets run out quickly.

Dubbed the 'Walkie Talkie', this bulging skyscraper didn't get off to a good start when it opened in 2014, as its highly reflective windows melted the plastic bodywork of several cars parked below, and it was named 'the worst new building in the UK' in the 2015 Carbuncle Cup.

The garden space includes a restaurant, a brasserie and three bars with varying opening times. If tickets have sold out, you can reserve a table at one of them to gain access, though you will have to order something.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • The Long Walk, the pathway leading to Windsor Castle is 2 1/2 miles long.

    Windsor Castle

    22.57 MILES

    The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…

  • Westminster Abbey.

    Westminster Abbey

    2.05 MILES

    A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place…

  • Tate Modern museum on the southern bank of the River Thames.

    Tate Modern

    0.73 MILES

    One of London's most amazing attractions, Tate Modern is an outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery housed in the creatively revamped Bankside…

  • London Natural History Museum

    Natural History Museum

    4.14 MILES

    With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy…

  • St. pauls cathedral with red double decker bus in London, United Kingdom

    St Paul's Cathedral

    0.66 MILES

    Sir Christopher Wren’s 300-year-old architectural masterpiece is a London icon. Towering over diminutive Ludgate Hill in a superb position that's been a…

  • The Tower of London

    Tower of London

    0.39 MILES

    Few parts of the UK are as steeped in history or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of the Tower of London. Not only is…

  • Dusk view of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the banks of the River Thames in London

    Shakespeare's Globe

    0.62 MILES

    Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…

  • Great Court, British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

    British Museum

    1.94 MILES

    With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…

View more attractions

Nearby London attractions

1. Leadenhall Market

0.11 MILES

The ancient Romans had their forum on this site, but this covered shopping arcade harks back to the Victorian era, with cobblestones underfoot and 19th…

2. Garden at 120

0.12 MILES

London's largest roof garden, The Garden at 120 is a blossoming 15th-floor pocket park paradise. Its mid-rise vantage point gives a unique perspective on…

3. St Dunstan in the East

0.12 MILES

Bombed to bits in the Blitz, the atmospheric ruins of 12th-century St Dunstan's have been left to the elements, resulting in a beautifully sombre public…

4. Monument to the Great Fire of London

0.13 MILES

Designed by Christopher Wren, this immense Doric column of Portland stone is a reminder of the Great Fire of London in 1666, which destroyed 80% of the…

5. Lloyd’s Building

0.13 MILES

While the world’s leading specialist insurance brokers are inside underwriting everything from astronauts’ lives to Taylor Swift's legs, people outside…

6. Scalpel

0.17 MILES

The nickname of this 39-storey tower completed in 2018 in the City was so apt it dislodged the skyscraper's official name: 52 Lime St.

7. St Olave's

0.18 MILES

St Olave’s was built in the mid-15th century and is one of the few churches to have survived the Great Fire. However, it was badly damaged by a bomb in…

8. Leadenhall Building

0.19 MILES

More commonly known as the Cheesegrater, this wedge-shaped 50-storey skyscraper opened in 2014 is angled at 10 degrees to protect views of St Paul's…