A few years ago some City speculators spotted they were more likely to get planning permission if their new skyscraper included a free public roof terrace. Free access to elevated views is always a winner in my book. So yesterday I went up a few.
This was all on-the-hoof so I didn't go up the big three because they expect you to book in advance.
Sky Garden at The Fenchurch Building, aka The Walkie-Talkie Opened January 2015, 35th-37th floors, blogged here
You have to book at least three weeks ahead, but yesterday 'Closed For Private Event'.
Horizon 22 at 22 Bishopsgate Opened September 2022, 57th-58th floor, blogged here
Tickets released on Mondays, they go fast but ridiculously early slots are often available.
The Lookout at 8 Bishopsgate Opened August 2022, 50th floor, blogged here
Tickets released on Mondays, current availability in four days time, but Horizon 22 is better.
I went instead to the walk-straight-ins, starting with the newest.
The Terrace at 1 Leadenhall Opened April 2026, 4th floor, Ian Visited here(map)
Lift duration: 20 seconds, Staff on duty: 2
This one's odd. When you think roof terrace you normally think lofty and airy, but this one's merely on the 4th floor of a 36 storey skyscraper with a view to match. You walk in round the corner from Leadenhall Market, opposite Waterstones, through a door that doesn't quite scream 'come in'. A bloke at a lectern in what appears to be a service corridor then walks you over to the lifts ("press 4 for me") before returning to his purgatorial wait for almost no visitors. It's certainly quick though, I was on The Terrace less than a minute after walking in downstairs.
The terrace is about 40m long and up to 10m wide, seemingly formed by cutting a two-storey wedge out of the side of the building. At one end is the entrance to a restaurant that hasn't opened yet, so may one day bring some buzz, whereas I had the place to myself apart from a security guard with nobody to watch but me. Eight benches have been provided amid a thin line of shrubbery, but better to walk up to the far ends because the central view is somewhat limited. You can look down in which case what you see is the roof of world-class tourist attraction Leadenhall Market. However all the amazing glitzy dazzle is on the underside, thus from above this could be any Victorian arcade and a few nice finials is as good as it gets.
More awkwardly the view to the south is substantially blocked by ongoing works on 85 Gracechurch Street, a neighbouring 32-storey tower that's only just reached double figures. This will one day have a free-to-visit fifth-floor public terrace, perhaps with the chance for people to be staring back over here, but for now it's just a crane and a heck of a lot of white sheeting. A better view can be had by walking to either end, indeed the chief interest is finding yourself above street level in the heart of the City's chief upthrust cluster.
At the Waterstones end you can see 8 and 22 Bishopsgate, the Cheesegrater and right up close the Lloyds Building with minions riding the elevators on its knobbly metal shell. Then the Scalpel, the roof terrace I'm heading to next, postmodern Minster Court, Plantation Place and the Walkie Talkie. The Shard is visible for now, then from the Gracechurch Street end the finer silhouettes of St Paul's dome, St Michael's tower and St Peter's spire. This roof terrace is a true oddity, a public space that's nice to have but fundamentally pointless, but if you ever need a mid-City toilet or a dry spot to eat your sandwiches it'd make an intriguing diversion.
The Garden at 120 at Fen Court Opened February 2019, 15th floor, blogged here(map)
Lift duration: 40 seconds, Staff on duty: 6
This one's long-established, popular and still the largest roof garden in the City. You do have to endure a scanner chicane before being admitted but I was swiftly through, this time three minutes from joining the queue to reaching the roof. Get stuck behind a full party of teenage EU tourists and it could be rather longer. The lift brings you up mid-terrace with a large pergola close by, in 2019 bare but now with wisteria twinkling its last and a rose-bush shrubbery underneath. The gardeners did good.
But the best thing here is the 360° panorama from the jagged perimeter, some of which is open enough to have a proper long distance view. Tower Bridge is almost unobscured, also the Tower itself, also the helipad at the Royal London in Whitechapel at almost the same elevation as yourself. But spin round and there's also Docklands, the Crystal Palace transmitter and the London Eye, plus close-up the glories of the Gherkin in a convenient slim gap to the north. A few of the younger visitors seemed more interested in pouting than their backdrop but that's their loss. If you've never been up here, or even thought to, give The Garden at 120 a go.
Roof Terrace at One New Change Opened November 2010, 6th floor, blogged here(map)
Lift duration: 20 seconds, Staff on duty: 3
When a shopping centre was plonked alongside St Paul's Cathedral, someone had the sense to put a tongue of public terrace on the roof. The real motive may have been to give the rooftop bar an amazing setting for sipping frozen margueritas but the rest of us are also elevated winners. The glass-sided lift whisks you up from brand central with excellent views of the cathedral funnelled down a slim reflective notch. The upper terrace is slightly stepped with plants and benches, but if you sit down the view vanishes behind a grey bulwark labelled 'Beware Sudden Drop'. The South Bank and the London Eye get a decent look-in but it's really all about Wren's dome, perfectly framed in a way that the telescope in Richmond Park no longer enjoys. Expect a brief visit, but distinctive.
Level 10 at Tate Modern Opened June 2016, 10th floor, blogged here(map)
Lift duration: 35 seconds, Staff on duty: 1
Tate Modern had high hopes for the 10th floor of the Blatnavik Building with its cafe and a four-sided observation terrace with excellent views of the Thames. Alas it also had great views into the apartments at Neo Bankside whose residents ultimately sued and won, thus if you arrive by lift today you can only visit the cafe. All the exterior doors are locked and signs on the inaccessible balcony say NO PHOTOGRAPHY OR FILMING, with a grumpy looking security guy positioned to ensure compliance. I asked him "will the balcony ever open again?" and he grunted "no", not even the front bit, and basically the entire 10th floor is now a ghastly waste of architectural effort.
Roof Garden at The Post Building Opened September 2022, 9th floor, blogged here(map)
This one's by far the westernmost roof terrace, hence offers a unique view across the West End's lowrise rooftops including a close-up of the British Museum's magnificent roof. I still don't understand why it's here nor why it's open daily, nor why they insist on Photo ID "and a full written name" before they'll let you up. However I didn't get the chance to test this out yesterday because when I arrived the roof terrace was "closed due to essential maintenance work", inconveniencing probably nobody but myself. I have to say that's probably the excuse I'd use if I'd built a white elephant terrace for planning reasons and wanted to avoid paying staff costs, or alternatively maybe there is some maintenance issue and the place is cursed. At least with a ticketed venue visitors would have known this in advance. Best go up The Garden at 120 instead, or plan ahead and do one of the three really high ones.
