diamond geezer

diamond geezer

Friday, May 22, 2026

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 still visible (for now), then the Gracechurch Street end has 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, and 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...