London is packed with wonderful secrets from pre-history to the brand new. It would take a lifetime to find them all, so when we were treated recently to a dinner at the 14 Hills restaurant (awards dinner for work), we also had the chance to visit an incredible gem on the floor above. The incredible rooftop garden that is The Garden at 120.
Walking along Fenchurch Street, London, look for the address:
120 Fenchurch St, London EC3M 5BA
Here you will be greeted by an incredible hi-definition ceiling screen and the main entrance to the lift straight up to the restaurant and the rooftop garden. You may need to go through the airport style security scanner but in the daytime it may not be necessary.
The lift is fast and takes you to the 14th floor. Now let me show you the view ladies and gentleman!
You are literally at “eye level” with the Gherkin, now twenty years old would you believe!
Being almost at the same level as the crane cabins, was quite weird. I wonder what the new building would be called. Londoners have a great way with names. Obviously the Gherkin is one but here is another famous one. The infamous “Walkie Talkie” of course which literally was the cause of the road below melting, exploding cars, and other incredible events. The shape of the building is a massive magnifying glass. You may have used one as a kid to burn paper, simply by angling the glass to catch the suns rays and create a beam of light onto a small point = fire. Don’t try this at home the BBC would say!
There is another roof garden at the Walkie-Talkie called the "Sky Garden" which I've not visited before and you can find a post about that on Pinmapple, I found it earlier whilst checking I wasn't posting a location already featured, thankfully not.
Another iconic building is of course The Shard built on top of London Bridge station. They had to make some extensive changes to the area around the station as the foundations needed to be 60m thick due to the Thanet sand and that's the thing, London isn't the easiest place to build Skyscrapers, they are a relatively new thing.
Canary Wharf was one of the most ambitious projects for it's time and yes, you can see that really well from 120 Fenchurch Street too!
The sky was a gift from the gods on this particular evening, it really was and I wish I had my Sony with me but the iPhone handled it all very well.
Apologies for the reflections but I was very glad there were ample glass panels around because, if you suffer from vertigo, well check these photos out! Sorry!
Finally I have saved the best one for last. We all love St Paul's Cathedral, a building that has survived various human disasters over the centuries from the Fire of London to WWII. This photo is one I am going to print, my colleagues adore it. I shared it on the company Slack channel recently and it's done well on other social media platforms too. Here you go...