Thurs, 10 March 2016, 10:48 am: Here’s what the Sky Garden looked like in an artist’s rendering in 2010.
Here’s what the most garden-y looking area of the Sky Garden looked like when I was there.
So, rather than having nature all around you as you meander from glass wall to glass wall, what really happens when you visit the Sky Garden is that you meander from glass wall to glass wall and at one point you walk around this one large patch of out-of-control greenery. Like my Florida backyard every three days during the summer, it looks like someone needs to take a commercial grade lawnmower to it. Unlike my yard (otherwise certain of my friends would want to come over more often), I’m pretty sure I see some marijuana growing in here.
Take the free ride to the top of 20 Fenchurch Street for the can’t-beat-’em views of everything in central London. Don’t come up here expecting anything from the name “Sky Garden” to rival the grounds of Versailles, Kew Gardens, or even those silly sculpted topiary characters at Disney World.
Behind that glass (in the photo above) is a bar/restaurant, from which you can look down and see… this same patch of unkempt mini-jungle. Maybe if you imbibe enough of their 13.50 pound glasses of champagne (that’s $19.72 for one glass of bubbly) it starts to look like Powerscourt Gardens.
In fairness, I think there are a few rows of plants or flowers judiciously spaced around the three stories that comprise the viewing areas, but I assure you, there is nothing like this:
There is a central standing room only bar with reasonable prices….
…and a pleasant space to grab a table and eat or drink next to the overlooks.
So, while Londoners got botanically cock-teased, they also got new unbeatable 360 degree views of their ever-evolving city. My prior post shows this off. And again, there is no cover charge to come up here, and you can stay as long as you like.
This piece will tell and show you more of what the Sky Garden was originally intended to look like.