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.