The Toast the City Awards are here to celebrate the very best in hospitality of placemaking in the Square Mile. On the eve of the big night, we are highlighting each of the 138 finalists who have beaten off competition from more than 2,000 entrants.
Home to dozens of church gardens, pocket squares and public spaces, the City of London is a haven for green spaces. Here’s our shortlist of the best. To find out who has won check the Toast the City website tomorrow.
Finsbury Circus Gardens
The City’s grand oval is a proper green lung for Moorgate. Encircled by elegant terraces, its curving paths, generous lawns and layered planting make it a natural meeting spot for lunch hours and lazy afternoons. Recent refurbishment after transport works has sharpened the edges without losing the calm. Mature trees filter the traffic hum, beds are kept to a high standard and there is enough space to feel you’ve escaped the office.
Postman’s Park
Tucked behind St Martin’s le Grand, Postman’s Park is a pocket sanctuary that asks you to pause. The lawns and borders are lovely, yet the soul of the place is the Watts Memorial, porcelain tablets honouring ordinary people who died saving others. It is moving without fanfare. Benches face trees rather than traffic, pathways drift between shade and dappled light, and the bustle of the General Post Office’s old stomping ground fades to a hush.
Festival Gardens
At the foot of St Paul’s, Festival Gardens brings postwar optimism into the present day. Formal beds give seasonal colour, low walls make casual seating and the vista back to the cathedral does the rest. You can pass through in two minutes or sit for 20 and watch the Square Mile inhale. Office workers unfold packed lunches, visitors take photographs, gardeners keep the lines crisp and the borders lively. Festival Gardens shows how careful design can lift an ordinary lunch hour.
Devonshire Square
Devonshire Square stitches together historic warehouses and contemporary courtyards to create a series of calm outdoor rooms. Trees throw generous shade, planters soften brick and stone and there is always a breeze drifting in from Bishopsgate. Seating clusters make it a natural spot for coffee catch-ups, while open events bring extra life after hours. For a garden that feels both lived-in and well cared for, Devonshire Square is a worthy Toast the City finalist.
Seething Lane Gardens
A stone’s throw from Trinity Square, Seething Lane Gardens is clean-lined and contemporary with a gentle nod to history. Low hedges and geometric lawns give order, while trees and herbaceous borders add softness. Look closely and you’ll find references to Samuel Pepys and the Navy Board that once sat here. Office workers read, tourists take a breather and the City’s noise falls away. It is a model of how new public space can feel rooted and welcoming.
St Andrew’s Church Holborn Gardens
Nestled by Holborn Viaduct, St Andrew’s churchyard gardens offers a green oasis between legal chambers and busy junctions. Old stones, mature plane trees and sympathetic planting create a calm, slightly hidden rectangle where time seems to slow. Paths thread sensibly, benches face greenery rather than traffic and seasonal beds give colour without fuss. It is the sort of place you remember on bright mornings and use on heavy afternoons, a pocket of continuity beside a road that rarely rests.
Inner Temple Gardens
Inner Temple Gardens feel almost impossibly lush for central London. Long riverside lawns, crisp edging and generous borders show the hand of expert gardeners, while the Thames adds a slow, civilised horizon. On open days the spectacle is obvious, but even on ordinary weekdays the mood is special. There is a pleasing formality to the layout and softness in the planting, a combination that invites lingering.
St Dunstan off Great Tower Street
The bomb-scarred ruins of St Dunstan in the East have become one of the City’s most enchanting gardens. Gothic arches hold climbers and wisteria, a gentle fountain cools the air and pockets of planting glow between ancient stones. It is cinematic yet intimate, a favourite for photographers that still works beautifully as a lunchtime refuge. Part history lesson, part green solace, it proves that restoration can be creative as well as careful.