City Gardens Walk Map

Start at Mansion House station.

Turn right into Queen Victoria Street, next to Huggin Hill.

Cross the road into Friday Street and onto Cannon Street.

Cross New Change into St Paul's Churchyard.

Out of the churchyard and into Queens Head Passage to Newgate Street.

Turn into King Edward Street.

Continue past Angel Street, through Postmans Park and onto St Martins Le-Grand.

Turn right onto London Wall and continue to Monkwell Square (via car park entrance)

Back onto London Wall, and round into Aldermanbury Square.

Back to Aldermanbury and turn into Love Lane.

Across Wood Street, through St Albans Court and into Oat Lane.

Continue to Noble Street and down to Gresham Street - end.

Goldsmiths' Garden

On the site of the medieval church of St John Zachery and opposite Goldsmiths Hall. The garden is on two levels, the former churchyard on higher ground:

and a sunken level reached by steps which is the excavated site of the church. In 1950 it won the Best Garden on a Blitzed Site. Redesigned by Peter Shepherd in 1962, the lower garden features a water fountain.

There is seating around the garden and a sculpture entitled 'Three Printers' representing the newspaper process, with a newsboy, a printer and an editor.

Nesting boxes for blue tits have been cleverly incorporated into the brick walls.

The garden is now part of Lloyds HQ, and they have developed the garden theme by installing flower boxes on the outside of the entrance facade, which continue the garden onto the building.

Noble Street Garden

Sunken garden amidst the excavated remains of the Roman Wall dated AD 100 and ruins uncovered by bomb damage during WW II. It is adjacent to the refurbished Plaisterers Hall 

The garden was planted with windflowers and grass in 2004.

St Mary Aldermanbury Garden

Situated in Love Lane on the site of St Mary Aldermanbury church, which was destroyed in the Great Fire. It was rebuilt afterwards by Wren and then gutted during the Blitz. The remaining walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri and rebuilt as a College memorial to Sir Winston Churchill.

Also in the gardens is a monument, topped by a bust of William Shakespeare to John Hemminge and Henry Condell, who were his co partners at the Globe theatre and were responsible for producing the first editions of his plays.

In the grounds is a Swamp Cypress tree, which stands adjacent to the Wood Street Police Station horse stables.

Notable people buried here - Judge Jeffrey's, known as the 'hanging judge'

Aldermanbury Square

Originally laid out in 1962, after war damage, with symmetrical arrangements of flower beds, lawn, paving and some seating. 

It was redeveloped for the Millenium and is now a traffic free public space featuring rows of planted table-topped plane trees (stunted) and water feature jets in the pavement. 

Also in the gardens is a bronze statue by Karin Jonzen called The Gardener.

Barbican

There are over 12 miles of window boxes in the Barbican estate. The lease does not insist that window boxes be used, but it does require that if they are planted, that they should be kept cultivated. They cannot be removed, and any new additions must be of the standard type.

Around the corner to Barber Surgeons Garden the space opens up to a lake bordering the Barbican high rises.

There is an annual competition for the best kept window boxes, which are now Grade II listed.

Barber Surgeons Physic Garden

The garden was created from a bomb site after WW2 and is sited next to Barber Surgeons Hall in Monkwell Square, Wood Street. 

Remains of the Lomdon Wall can also be seen here, and the garden is next to the 13th bastion (out of 21) which may also have been once been used as an 'operating theatre' or Anatomical Theatre in the 1500s.

The Physic garden seeks to recreate how plants might have been used in the past for medicinal and surgical reasons. In 1607, a horticulturalist named John Gerard referred to plants and herbs that related to surgery, dentistry, wounds and burns which he grew in his own Physic garden in Holborn. The original herb garden here was planted to meet the needs of Gerards work on this matter when he was Master of the Barber Surgeons Company.

The present garden dates from 1987. There are around 45 different herbs and fragrant plants, with descriptions of their uses in medicine.

Postmans Park

This park, off King Edward Street is created on the site of the former churchyard and burial ground of St Botolph without Aldersgate. After the cholera epidemic in the 1830s many churchyards became green spaces and were used as public parks.

Postman Parks' raised grounds are built above the burial grounds. Postmen working at the General Post Office (Rowland Hill building) opposite would take their lunch breaks here.

The garden has a banana tree, which is able to survive because he park is hidden away amongst buildings, meaning less chance of frost in winter.

The garden also has two tall London Plane trees, which absorb air pollution through their leaves, and exit it through their flaking bark. No insects will live on the trees. 

It is difficult to grow grass beneath the Plane trees, which provide shady areas in the summer. 

A round Koi pond with fountain (where lots of thrown coins have landed) completes the microclimate here in the park.

Note to self: research Brookfield Bug Buddies

 

Christchurch Greyfriars Gardens - Newgate Street

A garden on the site of the Franciscan Church of Greyfriars, established in 1225. Four queens have been buried here before the church was destroyed by the Great Fire. 

A new church was built by Wren but was gutted by fire in WW2 and only the tower remains, privately owned and recently sold for £4m. 

The gardens were re-landscaped in 2011, the ten wooden towers which were built to grow climbing plants within the garden replicate the original church pillars for the roof and feature bird boxes. The clipped box hedges mark where the original church pews would have been.

The gardens colour scheme is blue, purple and white and plants were chosen to increase biodiversity. 

St Paul's Churchyard Garden

Near the entrance beside a red telephone box is an unusual Oak tree, a fastigiated Oak, a taller columnar tree which was planted in dedication to Mahatma Ghandi. It is known as the Friendship Tree. 

The restored railings marking the entrance to the churchyard are an example of early cast iron work. Made in Lamberhurst, Kent they were hated by Wren. They are now Grade 1 listed.

The gardens were designed by Edward Milner in 1879. Many trees were chosen for their biblical connections. St Paul's Churchyard is the oldest planted space in the City.

In the shrub borders and grounds can be found: 

Japanese Bitter Orange tree, with fallen fruits

    

A Strawberry tree with reddish bark and fruit which resembles a small strawberry 

A Persian Ironwood tree, unusual in its branch structure as it splits and then joins together. The wood is very strong.

The City's only Giant Douglas Fir tree, with aromatic needles.

A Katsura (or Candyfloss tree as its blossom suggests), the wood from this Japanese tree is used to make geisha girl shoes.

A Dinosaur tree which can be traced back 270 million years ago to the time of the dinosaurs (aka Ginko biloba) which does not harbour any pests nor have any diseases. Only male trees are favoured, as the fruit from the female tree falls to the ground and has a rotten smell.

Ginkgo trees are very hardy; six trees planted near the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bomb are amongst the few living things to survive the blast and are still alive today! 

Note to self: get photos and find out about other trees, including the Ginko or Dinosaur tree.

Festival Gardens and the Queens Diamond Jubilee Garden

The City of London's contribution to the Festival of Britain in 1951 on the site of Old Change. Designed by Sir Albert Richardson to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great Exhibition. 

The gardens have centre piece fountain set amidst a sloping lawn. 

The garden was remodelled and extended in 2012 to incorporate the new Queens Jubilee Garden which stands on the former coach car park for St Paul's. There is a statue to John Dunne, the poet who was once the Dean of St. Paul's 

A line of pleached lime trees provide a barrier to the road and offer some seclusion to the gardens.

 

25 Cannon Street (also known as Fidelity Gardens)

An award winning contemporary garden designed by Elizabeth Banks in 2000. It is square with an oval, slightly convex lawn and was built over a car park. It contains 6000 plants in only one metre of soil. Set amidst the backdrop of St Paul's, it gives an impression of an open space in the city.

In the covered tree and shrub section there are 'tombstones' which cleverly hide the car park ventilation shafts. 

Cleary Gardens

Can be reached through an entrance in Queen Victoria Street and also via a gate in Huggin Hill.

In earlier times the River Thames would have reached the bottom of the slope of Huggin Hill at high tide. People around this area may well have kept pigs, hence the word hoggene, a lane where hogs are kept. 

During the Middle Ages this area was the hub of the wine trade (being not far from Vintners Hall in Lower Thames Street) and there is a miniature vineyard from the Loire Valley on one terrace. 

During the Blitz, a house that once stood here was destroyed exposing the cellars. A cordwainer named Jospeh Brandis decided to create a garden amidst the rubble. He collected mud from the River Thames and used soil and plants from his own garden in Walthamstow. In 1949 the Queen Mother visited the garden. There is a plaque to him in the garden.

The garden is named after Fred Cleary, a garden spaces campaigner who developed the garden in the 1970s. 

The garden is divided into three tiers joined by steps.

At the entrance in Queen Victoria Street is a pergola terrace containing Yatsuka Tree Peonies from Japan, presented to the City as a symbol of goodwill.

In 1964 excavations revealed the site of former Roman baths (there is a model in the Museum of London) 

In the middle terrace there is a three-storey Beevarian Antsel and Gretel Chalet, with insect friendly plants to attract bees, butterflies and ladybirds. The hive is made of materials collected from within the City. 

Near the entrance, a ventilation shaft for Mansion House station can also be seen. 

City Gardens - an introduction

There are over 200 green spaces in the City. These range from gardens, churchyards, parks, plazas and squares. They are all part of the City's unique history, and many have a tale to tell.

Some of the spaces are hidden, whist some are more open. Many came into being as a result of two historical events: the Great Fire in 1666, and the Blitz. These events caused small derelict areas of land, and the Burial Act of 1855 also meant that churchyards were made available for public use.

The spaces are managed by the City Gardens Team, and are developed from 5 year plans, audits and strategies for future use.

The City of London Corporation has a commitment to open spaces for its 7000 residents and 330,000 workers and visitors every day, and also to improve garden habitats through a Biodiversity Action Plan.

All new building developments in the City must make a positive contribution to the environment, so new trees, flower beds and water features have been created.

Livery Companies Walk Map

Start at Cannon Street station

Left out of station and into Dowgate Hill

Into College Street onto Skinners Lane and into Little Trinity Lane

Look across to Upper Thames Street

Continue up Little Trinity Lane into Great Trinity Lane 

Cross Queen Victoria Street into Bow Lane

Back onto Queen Victoria Street, up Queen Street to Cheapside.

Turn into Ironmongers Lane.

Back onto Cheapside and into King Street to the Guildhall in Gresham Street.

Down Aldermanbury to Aldermanbury Square.

Look over to Fore Street.

Go across to Wood Street via St Albans Court and into corner of Oat Street and Staining Lane 

Continue into Oat Lane and onto Noble Street

Back to Gresham Street and into Gutter Lane

Through alleyway beside Saddlers Hall and out onto Foster Lane

Along to Cheapside - end 

Broderers Company - 48

Broderers were involved with embroidery and the art of needlework. The dissolution of the Monastaries heralded a decline in demand for gold and silver guilt thread work for church embroideries. 

There was a brief revival in Elizabethan England, when their royal Charter was granted. 

Currently, membership is only open to men. 

Their hall once stood in Gutter Lane until destroyed in the Blitz. They now share a hall with the Mercers. 

Saddlers Company - 25

Makers of saddles, a Saddlers guild probably existed in Anglo Saxon times.  Royal Grant was by Richard II in 1395, and the company had jurisdiction over all Saddlers working within a two mile radius of the City. In the 18th century, the saddlery trade had moved to the West Midlands and the companies influence declined. 

Its company treasures include: a ballot box where the voter places his hand into a central tunnel and turns his wrist to cast a vote into a drawer of his choice. Also the Kings Champion Saddle made of leather covered in red silk velvet. 

Their hall is in Gutter Lane and is their third. 

At the rear and approached via an alleyway, is a secluded courtyard surrounded by railings 

Goldsmiths Company - 5

 Number 5 in the Great Twelve companies, it received its Royal Charter in 1327. Regulates the craft or trade of the Goldsmith, tests the quality of gold, silver and nowadays platinum and palladium articles. Then, if any articles were found to be below standard, they were destroyed and the metal forfeited to the King.

The word hallmark originates from the 15th century when craftsmen were required to bring their artefacts to Goldsmiths Hall for assaying, or marking. The City of London's mark of authenticity is the leopards head seen here on the gates opposite the hall.

This is still a requirement today, and a permanent Assay Office can be found within the Goldsmiths Hall, the leopards head as a mark of the office. 

Other responsibilities include Keeper of the Troy Weight; the standard measurement of weight used for gold, and the annual examination of coins manufactured by the Royal Mint. This is known as the Trial of the Pyx. It also checks items of antique silver plate to look for hallmarks.

Goldsmiths Hall in Gresham Street is the third on this site since 1339. It narrowly escaped a bomb which exploded here in 1941 and has been recently refurbished to adapt it for the 21st century. The Livery Hall within has a moulded ceiling in gold leaf.