Top 10 Best Parks & Botanical Gardens In London

★1 Richmond Park

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

For vehicles: 7 AM to dusk (Mon-Sun, summer); 7.30 AM to dusk (Mon-Sun, winter) · For walkers: 7.30 AM to 8 PM (Mon-Sun, Feb-early Mar, Nov-early Dec); 24 hours (Mon-Sun, late Mar-Oct, late Dec-Jan)

Price?

Free

Time required?

A typical visit takes 4-6 hours depending on how far you want to walk (including travel time to/from London)

If you enjoy walking then try Richmond Park because it’s vast. It’s large enough to get lost in – 2,500 acres of wild woodland, rolling hills and overgrown fields of ferns. You can stand on top of a hill and see for miles.

There’s a little lake in the middle and a couple of mansions as well, two of which have got a cafe and an ornamental garden attached.

See if you can find the herds of wild deer that roam around (the place is so huge that it could take you hours to find them). The herds can be up to a hundred strong and led by powerful stags with antlers.

If you walk to the northern edge of the park then you’ll be treated to a distant view of London’s skyline.

★2 St. James’s Park

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

5 AM to midnight (Mon-Sun)

Price?

Free

Time required?

A typical visit takes 45-60 mins

There are seven large parks in the centre of London (Battersea Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, Holland Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent’s Park and St. James’s), but St. James’s Park is definitely our favourite.

For starters, it’s a lot closer to all the other attractions – it’s bordered by Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards Parade, and is within easy walking distance of Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament.

If you stand in the centre of the lake bridge then you’ll get a celebrated shot of Buckingham Palace behind the trees. If you spin round 180 degrees then you’ll get another great one of Horse Guards.

★3 Highgate Cemetery

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

10 AM to 5 PM (Mon-Sun, Mar-Oct); 10 AM to 4 PM (Mon-Sun, Nov-Feb); Last entry 1 hour before closing

Price?

Adults £10.00; Children £6.00 (8-17); Infants free (under-6)

Time required?

A typical visit takes East cemetery: 1½-2 hours – West cemetery guided tour: 1¼-1½ hours

Spending the afternoon in a cemetery might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but this is no ordinary cemetery. If you like your cemeteries to be wild and overgrown with monumental tombs hidden in the trees then Highgate Cemetery is a magical experience.

You can walk around the East Cemetery all be yourself (that’s where you’ll find the grave of Karl Marx), but a guided tour of the West Cemetery is what we really recommend. That’s the one with the Egyptian Avenue and Circle of Lebanon.

★4 Sky Garden

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

10 AM to 6 PM (Mon-Fri); 11 AM to 9 PM (Sat-Sun); Last entry 1 hour before closing

Price?

Free

Time required?

A typical visit takes 1 hour (but more if you plan to stop and eat in the restaurant)

If you don’t fancy spending a fortune getting inside The Shard, then how about visiting the tropical garden at the top of the Sky Garden for free?

This skyscraper rises 500-feet over the City of London and has two huge flowerbeds at the top with trees and jungle ferns. Try and imagine the Palm House at Kew on top of a skyscraper – that’s basically what it’s like. And they’ve got a cafe and restaurant up there as well, so you can sit down and have something to eat.

Note: you can’t just turn up whenever you like – you have to book a free ticket on their website first.

★5 Kew Gardens

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

10 AM to 7 PM (Mon-Fri, May-Aug); 10 AM to 8 PM (Sat-Sun, May-Aug); 1 AM to 7 PM (Mon-Sun, Sep); 10 AM to 6 PM (Mon-Sun, Oct & Mar); 10 AM to 4 PM (Mon-Sun, first half Nov & last 3 weeks of Jan); 10 AM to 3 PM (Mon-Sun, second half Nov-first week of Jan); 10 AM to 5 PM (Mon-Sun, Feb); Last entry 1 hour before closing

Price?

Adults £21.45; Children £5.50 (4-15); Infants free (under-4); Family ticket £48.95

Time required?

A typical visit takes 4-5 hours (including travel time to/from London)

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew have one of the largest plant collections in the world which will take you all day to walk around. They even have a land train to ferry people about – that’s how vast the grounds are.

If your partner’s not as interested in plants then there’s still a lot for them to enjoy. There’s a steamy tropical Palm House, an art gallery, a Chinese pagoda, Kew Palace, and if you’re extremely brave then you can climb up the terrifying Treetop Walkway.

★6 Hampton Court Palace gardens

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

10 AM to 5.30 PM (Wed-Sun, Jun-late Jul & Sep); 10 AM to 5.30 PM (Mon-Sun, late Jul-Aug); Last entry 1 hour before closing

Price?

Adults £28.80; Children £14.30 (5-15); Infants free (under-5); Family ticket £78.90

Time required?

A typical visit takes 4-5 hours (including travel time to/from London)

The Tudor palace at Hampton Court dates all the way back to the reign of one of our greatest kings, Henry VIII. You can walk around his Great Hall and Chapel Royal (surely one of the most beautiful rooms in London), as well as his original kitchens with huge fires and sooty chimneys. You can also visit the State apartments of William III, George I and George II.

There are several parks and gardens worth seeing, and to the side of the palace are some kitchen gardens and the famous hedge maze.

To the north are the ornamental gardens, and beyond that is Home Park – 750 acres of wild parkland where descendants of Henry VIII’s original deer still roam free. If you want to see some more wild deer then you might like to try Richmond Park.

★7 Wisley Gardens

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

Gardens: 10 AM to 6 PM (Mon-Fri); 9 AM to 6 PM (Sat-Sun) · Glasshouse: 10 AM to 3.45 PM (Mon-Sun); Last entry 1 hour before closing

Price?

Adults £17.55; Children £8.75 (5-16); Infants free (under-5); Family ticket £45.05

Time required?

A typical visit takes 4½-5 hours (including travel time to/from London)

RHS Wisley is similar to the botanical gardens at Kew. Its 240 acres include an arboretum and lots of model gardens to give you some ideas for your own home, plus a couple of glasshouses filled with tropical plants.

If you only have time to visit one or the other then we definitely recommend Kew because 1) it’s bigger, and 2) it also has some other attractions inside to keep your kids happy. Wisley is more for the true gardeners.

★8 London Wetland Centre

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

9.30 AM to 5.30 PM (Mon-Sun, Apr-Jun); 9.30 AM to 6 PM (Mon-Sun, Jul-Aug); 9.30 AM to 5 PM (Mon-Sun, Sep-Oct); Last entry 1 hour before closing

Price?

Adults £15.50; Children £9.50 (4-16); Infants free (under-4); Family ticket £41.50

Time required?

A typical visit takes 3-4½ hours (including travel time to/from London)

The London Wetland Centre isn’t really a park, or even a garden – it’s more like a nature reserve. But we’ve decided to include it because it’s still about nature.

If you’re into birdwatching then you’ll love it because it’s filled with marshes and grasses and huge lakes where birds roam free. You can spot everything from bitterns, pintails and lapwings, to sparrowhawks, sand martins and kingfishers. There are even some birdwatching hides where you can sit with your binoculars.

★9 Regent’s Park

Photo: Craig Cross

Opening times?

5 AM to 5 PM (Jan); 5 AM to 6 PM (Feb); 5 AM to 7 PM (1st half of Mar, 1st half of Oct); 5 AM to 8 PM (2nd half of Mar, Sep); 5 AM to 9 PM (Apr, Aug); 5 AM to 9.30 PM (May-Jul); 5 AM to 5.30 PM (2nd half of Oct); 5 AM to 4.30 PM (Nov-Dec)

Price?

Free

Time required?

A typical visit takes 1½-2 hours

The northern half of Regent’s Park is just flat grassland but the middle has some beautiful rose beds and a boating lake. There are a couple of nice cafes dotted around as well, and during the summer months you can enjoy performances on the open-air bandstand.

If you walk along the norther perimeter of the park then you can peer into the cages at London Zoo.

★10 View from Primrose Hill, Greenwich Hill and Parliament Hill

Photo: Craig Cross

The final spot on our Top 10 list goes to three different hills which we’ve lumped together as one.

Primrose Hill is the easiest to climb and gives you a great view of London Zoo and the City skyscrapers.

The view from Greenwich Hill swings around from the London Eye to the O2 Arena, taking in the City and Canary Wharf. But for the best view of London you should try Parliament Hill.