Kensington Roof Gardens (formerly known as Derry and Toms Roof Gardens and later The Roof Gardens) is a private

roof garden A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational op ...

covering on top of the former

Derry & Toms Derry & Toms was a London department store that was founded in 1860 in Kensington High Street and was famous for its Roof Garden which opened in 1938. In 1973 the store was closed and became home to Big Biba, which closed in 1975. The site was ...

building on

Kensington High Street Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, London, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and part ...

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

. Originally opened in 1938, the gardens were open to the public until January 2018 when the leaseholder,

Virgin Limited Edition Virgin Limited Edition, part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group of business ventures, is a collection of holiday retreats around the world. Properties Current * ''Kasbah Tamadot'' hotel in Asni, Morocco * ''The Lodge'', a ski lodge in V ...

, was unable to reach an agreement with the freeholder about renewal of the lease.

History

Derry and Toms new

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

department store was opened in 1933. The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

who had just created the "Gardens of the Nations" on the 11th floor of the RCA Building in New York, on the instructions of Trevor Bowen (then

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

of Barkers, the

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

giant that owned the site and constructed the building). They cost £25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter. Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £120,000 was raised during the next 30 years.Ralph Hancock F.R.H.S. – Landscape Artist - Derry and Toms roof garden
Parks & Gardens UK. Retrieved 2011-11-29. The building housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then

Biba Biba was a London fashion store of the 1960s and 1970s. Biba was started and primarily run by the Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki with help of her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon. Early years Biba's early years were rather humble, with many of the ou ...

until 1975. In 1978, the garden's

tea pavilion was redeveloped into a nightclub, in 1981 Virgin Limited Edition bought the lease to the roof garden and the pavilion, and in 2001 Virgin turned the pavilion into the Babylon restaurant. The more than 100 trees in the garden were given a

tree preservation order A tree preservation order (TPO) is a part of town and country planning in the United Kingdom. A TPO is made by a local planning authority (usually a local council) to protect specific trees or a particular area, group or woodland from deliberate d ...

by Kensington & Chelsea council in 1976, the roof garden buildings were Grade II* listed by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

in 1981 as part of a listing given the whole building, and the garden itself was given a Grade II listing in 1998 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Virgin ceased its operation of the Roof Gardens in January 2018 and the site is currently closed to the public. It is unknown when it will reopen.

The gardens

It is divided into three themed gardens: Kensington-Roof-Gardens

Spanish garden A traditional Spanish garden is a style of garden or designed landscape developed in historic Spain. Especially in America, the term tends to be used of a garden design style with a formal arrangement that evokes, usually not very precisely, the ...

, in a Moorish style based upon the Alhambra in Spain, with

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themsel ...

-covered walkways and Chusan palms; *a

Tudor style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

garden, characterised by its archways, secret corners and hanging

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north ...

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s, lilies and

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...

contribute the rich summer scent to the garden; *an English water garden, with over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a

garden pond A garden pond is a water feature constructed in a garden or designed landscape, normally for aesthetic purposes, to provide wildlife habitat, or for swimming. Habitat Garden ponds can be excellent wildlife habitats, and can make a contribution t ...

that is the home to pintail ducks and four

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbea ...

s called Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks. There are over 30 different species of trees in the water garden, including trees from the original planting over sixty years ago. The roof was designed to bear the load of one hundredweight per square foot (approximately 500 kilogrammes per square metre) with a drainage layer of brick and clinker beneath the soil.Peel, D. W. 1960. ''A Garden in the Sky''. W. H. Allen Although they are on a rooftop, the trees were made the subject of

s in 1976.

Gallery

Image:99_high_street_kensington.JPG, 99 Kensington High Street entrance on Derry Street. The street-level entrance to the roof gardens Image:Kensington_roof_gardens_window.JPG, One of the windows in the walled garden Image:Kensington_roof_gardens_trevor_bowen_plaque.JPG, Plaque in the garden showing Trevor Bowen, director of Barkers of Kensington Image:Ralph Hancock Plaque.jpg, Ralph Hancock Commemorative Plaque, unveiled by members of the Hancock family on 29 January 2012 Image:Kensington_roof_gardens_flamingo.jpg, One of the pink flamingos that live in the gardens Image:Kensington_roof_gardens_tent.jpg, A tent in the Spanish garden

References

{{Reflist 1938 establishments in England Department store buildings in the United Kingdom Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II listed parks and gardens in London House of Fraser Kensington Nightclubs in London Parks and open spaces in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Roof gardens Virgin Group Virgin Limited Edition