Hidden London: Lunch and Flamingoes

Bill writes: Aline took me to lunch yesterday at Babylon, a very nice restaurant at the top of this quite large and imposing building.



Lunch was great, but what Aline really wanted to show me was the rooftop garden of this building. Work is going on to renovate it, but we found a back entrance and let ourselves out to the garden. Or actually three gardens. Since 1928, the top of this building has had a series of large gardens.

The Tudor one is currently closed for renovation. However, we were able to sneak around to the back for a look at the spanish garden. It's a sort of mini-Alhambra, with a large courtyard, fountains, a covered walking gallery, and palm-trees.





But the marvels don't end there. Going around the corner, you come on the woodland garden, with streams, ponds, glens, and full-size trees all planted in the five feet of soil built on top of the roof. Not only are there ducks and mallards living in the ponds, but a pair of male flamingoes are there as well. They were brought here to the garden 20 years ago, and have lived on this rooftop contentedly ever since. It turns out that flamingoes are comfortable in weather down to around 15 degrees fahrenheit. So they were doing a lot better than we were.



Certainly not the sort of thing you expect in the center of London, but there you go.