Central London Garden Hotel Short Breaks

London is the gardening capital of the world. No other great city can have nearly as many keen gardeners and and good gardens. It has some wonderful public gardens and public parks but there are no private 'gardens open to the public' of the type which are so common in other parts of England. We therefore recommend (1) looking for gardens open on specific days under the National Gardens Scheme (2) staying in a Garden Hotel for the two Short Breaks recommended below (3) doing additional Garden Short Breaks to gardens in the Home Counties: Sussex, Kent etc.

2008 Open Garden Squares Weekend will take place 7th-8th June 2008 - if you can time your visit right, it is a great opportunity to see many of London's gardens and squares that are not normally open to the public.

The best time of year for a gardener to visit Central London is during the Chelsea Flower Show (last full week in May). You have to book well in advance, and its a squash, but its also the gardening world's answer to a World Cup Final. Even if you can't get a ticket, you can spend over two hours/day watching the show on TV in your hotel room! If this does not appeal, we recommend visiting London in June. Its more reliably warm and the roses should be excellent in Regent's Park and Hyde Park. You can also see the best roof garden in England (Kensington Roof Garden), and, in our editor's view, the best small urban park in the world: St James's Park. To experience something of the medieval approach to garden design you can visit Westminster Cloister, Chelsea Physic Garden and the world's first Museum of Garden History. Kensington Gardens has the best water garden and the best children's playground in London. Holland Park has a good flower garden, which survives from the once-very-famous Holland House Garden.