Revealed: London’s secret parks and gardens

Map | Study reveals the top 50 hidden gem parks and gardens of London

• New data delves into London’s undiscovered parks and gardens
• Parks in Westminster, Brent, and Southwark among the top-rated hidden gem parks
• Southwark is the borough with the most unexplored greenspaces

Westminster, Ealing, and Southwark are home to the top hidden parks and gardens in London, according to new research.

Most of us will have heard of Hyde Park, The Regent’s Park, Hampstead Heath or even Battersea Park but have you ever heard of The Queen’s Meadow which sits in the middle of Westminster?

Inspired by the recent sunny weather, Barratt London has created a roundup of the top undiscovered greenspaces in London.

Some of which you might have walked past on your commute…

Which parks and gardens make the top 10?

First place is shared between six parks which are The Queen’s Meadow, Salopian Kitchen Garden, Tiverton Green, Tivoli Park, Leg O Mutton Reservoir and Walthamstow Reservoirs. All these parks have five-star reviews and are dotted in different areas of the city.

This line-up is also unique as the top six greenspaces are not the same structure – two are gardens, two are traditional parks and two are lakes.

The Queen’s Meadow in Westminster, named after Her Majesty the Queen, is a garden known for its stunning display of white flowers.

Salopian Kitchen Garden is used as a learning resource to teach members of the public about horticulture.

Tiverton Green in Brent and Tivoli Park in Norwood are more traditional parks which have a wide variety of sports facilities and children’s playgrounds. Tiverton Green is home to a cycling course as well as a climbing wall and is a popular spot for dog walkers. Tivoli Park has a basketball court as well as a football field and is one for nature lovers to visit as it is home to various fruit trees.

Leg O Mutton Reservoir and Walthamstow Reservoirs are both large lakes where a host of wildlife resides. Leg O Mutton Reservoir is not only home to beautiful trees and bushes, but also various birds such as tufted duck, heron, and cormorant as well as bats.

In Walthamstow Reservoir you can spot dragonflies, speckled wood butterflies as well as different species of bats and amphibians.

Below are the top 10 hidden gem parks and gardens:

Ranking	Name of Greenspace	Borough	Overall score
=1	The Queen’s Meadow	Westminster	100
=1	Salopian Kitchen Garden	Hounslow	100
=1	Tiverton Green	Brent	100
=1	Tivoli Park	Norwood	100
=1	Leg O Mutton Reservoir	Barnes	100
=1	Walthamstow Reservoir	Waltham Forest	100
=7	St Paul’s Churchyard and Eden Community Garden	Lambeth	75
=7	Pullen’s Gardens	Southwark	75
=9	Ducketts Common	Haringey	70
=9	Haven Green	Ealing	70

Some other honourable mentions that make the top 10 are Bethnal Green Gardens which is in Tower Hamlets and Italian Gardens in Kensington.

The parks were ranked using TripAdvisor data which looked at the number of reviews and scores.

Which borough is home to the most undiscovered greenspaces?

The study also explored which borough has the most hidden gem greenspaces, revealing that Southwark is home to the most undiscovered parks! Five of the parks and gardens in the top 50 belong to the South London district. Some of these are Pullen’s Gardens, Durand’s Wharf and Potters Field Park.

Westminster is in second place which is home to three hidden gems in the line-up. These are The Queen’s Meadow, St. John’s Gardens and Millbank Gardens. If you are wandering around the city centre of London, you know which parks to hit up for guaranteed quietness!

The boroughs of Wandsworth, Islington, Newham, Brent, Sydenham, and Haringey all share third place with two undiscovered greenspaces each. It is worth noting that Tiverton Green is in Brent which shares first place in the top 10.

Below are the top 3 London boroughs with the most parks and gardens:

Ranking	Name of Borough	What greenspaces it has	How many it has
1	Southwark	Pullen’s Gardens, Durand’s Wharf, Potters Field Park, Tibetan Peace Garden & Stave Hill Ecological Park	5
2	Westminster	The Queen’s Meadow, St. John’s Gardens & Millbank Gardens	3
=3	Wandsworth	Tooting Common & Wandsworth Common	2
=3	Islington	Charterhouse Square & New River Walk	2
=3	Newham	New Beckton Park & Stratford Park	2
=3	Brent	Tiverton Green & Queen’s Park	2
=3	Sydenham	Sydenham Hill Wood and Cox’s Walk& Wells Park	2
=3	Haringey	Ducketts Common & Priory Park	2

Joseph Antoniazzi, head of sales at Barratt West London, said: “We were delighted to see so many hidden greenspaces we had never visited before.

It is important to support and visit local parks and gardens, especially these smaller spaces as they deserve just as much love if not more than the well-known spaces.

This warm summer weather is a perfect excuse to tick a few off the list”