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Crossrail Place Roof Garden in Canary Wharf
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
The Crossrail Place Roof Garden is a 300-metre enclosed garden which opened in 2015 that sits above the new Crossrail Station in Canary Wharf.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
The unique latticed timber roof design by Foster + Partners spans 310m along its length It is filled with 780 triangular pillows which are continually filled with air. The roof allows air flow and natural irrigation to reach the plants in the roof garden.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
The gardens have been planted with species from all corners of the globe, The designers have tried to draw on the area’s heritage, planting plants that are native to countries visited by ships of the West India Dock Company, which used to unloaded their cargo in the area where the station now sits.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
The gardens sits almost exactly on the Meridian line and the planting is arranged by hemisphere. Asian plants such as bamboos, Japanese maple, magnolia to the east, and plants such as ferns,strawberry Tree, and sweet Gum tree from the Americas to the west.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
Within the Roof Garden is a 60 seater performance space and features a number of sculpture in and around the garden.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
The Crossrail Place Roof Gardens have free admission and are open daily to the public until 9pm (or sunset in summer).
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A Short Guide to Leicester Square
Leicester Square is one of the oldest squares in London and was named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester. The origins of Leicester Square go back to the building of Leicester House in 1635 for Sidney. In a dispute about common land. Lord Leicester was ordered to keep part of his land open, this land was originally known as Leicester Fields and later as Leicester Square. Gradually other large houses were built around the square and became quite a fashionable area, in the 18th century, William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds lived around the square.
Leicester Square 1750
By the end of the 18th century, the square began to be used for public entertainments. This trend carried on into the 19th century with shops, museums and exhibitions dominating the square. A number of hotels were later established around the square attracting a large number of foreign visitors.
The large Alhambra Theatre was built-in 1854 dominated until it burned down in 1882 and was then rebuilt. Other theatres were built but gradually were replaced by large cinemas.
In the 21st century it was redeveloped as a general entertainment area. The cinemas around the square are often used for film premieres and attract some of the biggest names in film.
In the 1870s, A statue of William Shakespeare surrounded by dolphins was constructed in the centre. Near the statute is the TKTS booth in Leicester Square which is the only official place to purchase cheap theatre tickets in the West End. Other unofficial booths have grown up around the square offering tickets but generally sell at a higher rate than official outlets.
Leicester Square is one of those areas that is often seen as part of the centre of London, but is generally more popular with visitors than Londoners. The restaurants and gift shops around and near Leicester Square almost exclusively cater for the many visitors who frequent the area.
The nearest tube station is Leicester Square tube station.
London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here
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