The Roof Gardens
The
Roof Gardens
1938, Ralph Hancock
99 Kensington High Street w8
020 7937 7994 or 020 7368 3993; www.roofgardens.virgin.com
If you're tiring of the summer crowds in Kensington, turn down
shaded Derry Street and look for a large, imposing doorway marked 99 Kensington
High Street. It appears to lead to the offices of some well-heeled company, but
go inside, sign in at reception, take a lift up to the roof, and then step out
into one of London's strangest secret gardens. Floating an improbable thirty
metres above the traffic of Kensington High Street, and sprawling out over one
and a half acres, the Roof Gardens boast fully grown oak and fruit trees, a
stream stocked with fish, and four resident flamingos, named Bill, Ben, Splosh,
and Pecks. There are fine views over the crowded cityscape of Kensington and
Chelsea. Opened in 1938 atop what was then the Derry and Toms department store
(part of the Barkers group), the gardens were created at the behest of Barkers'
vice president, and designed by Ralph Hancock (architect of the Gardens of the
Nations at Rockefeller Center, New York). Today the Roof Gardens are owned by the
Virgin Hotels group and open for public viewing on select days only: phone in
advance of your visit to check access, and then wander through a 1930s
departmentstore president's dream of a gracious shopping experience.
Helen Gordon
Helen Gordon is a journalist, editor, and the author of Landfall. She was formerly an associate editor at Granta magazine. She lives in East London.
