London has spent the last twenty years growing upwards. The Square Mile, once defined by church spires and the dome of St Paul’s, is now a thicket of glass: the Gherkin, the Cheesegrater, the Walkie Talkie and an increasing number of buildings that look as though they were designed by people who had recently discovered the “distort” tool.
There is one consolation. A surprising number of these towers allow the public upstairs for nothing.
You can now look down on London from the 58th floor of 22 Bishopsgate, stand in a garden 15 storeys above Fenchurch Street, or stare almost directly into the dome of St Paul’s without spending a penny. Some require military-level forward planning. Others merely require finding the correct lift.
Here are the five best free viewing platforms in the City of London, and how to get into them.
58th floor | 254 metres | Free, advance booking recommended
If your main criterion is height, this is the one.
Horizon 22 occupies Level 58 of 22 Bishopsgate and bills itself as London’s highest free viewing platform. At around 254 metres above ground level, it is high enough for the City beneath you to stop looking architectural and start looking like something constructed from Lego.
The lift itself takes only 41 seconds to reach the gallery, travelling at up to eight metres per second. At the top, enormous windows provide roughly 300 degrees of London: Tower Bridge, the Shard, St Paul’s, Canary Wharf, the West End and, on a clear day, a great deal of England that you had no particular intention of seeing.
There is something faintly thrilling about seeing the other City skyscrapers from above. Buildings designed principally to intimidate people at street level suddenly look rather small.
The viewing area itself is spacious and comparatively uncluttered. Unlike Sky Garden, it feels primarily like an observation deck rather than a restaurant complex that happens to have London attached.
How to visit: admission is free, but you should book a timed ticket online. A limited number of walk-in places may sometimes be available. Current opening hours are 10am–6pm on weekdays, 10am–5pm Saturday and 10am–4pm Sunday.
One further temptation awaits above you. Gordon Ramsay has colonised the upper floors of 22 Bishopsgate, including Bread Street Kitchen on Level 59. Free view followed by expensive lunch: London’s economic model compressed into two floors.
Londonopia verdict: 5/5
50th floor | Free, booking required
A few doors away from Horizon 22 is a second free viewing gallery that attracts rather less attention.
The Lookout occupies the 50th floor of 8 Bishopsgate, a 2,500-square-foot room wrapped in glass. The simplicity is part of its appeal. There are no hanging gardens pretending to be Babylon and rather less pressure to purchase a £17 cocktail. You are essentially given a very large room and London.
Its location within the cluster is particularly good. Rather than simply looking down on the skyscrapers, you are among them. The neighbouring towers loom close enough to appreciate just how peculiar the modern City has become.
Southwards, the Thames, Tower Bridge and the Shard dominate. To the west, old London appears between the towers in fragments.
The Lookout also has one significant advantage over Horizon 22: late opening on Mondays and Fridays, when it stays open until 9pm. That makes it one of the best places in London to watch daylight drain out of the city without buying dinner.
How to visit: book a free timed ticket online. Current hours are Monday and Friday 12pm–9pm; Tuesday to Thursday 10.30am–5.30pm; Saturday 11am–6pm; Sunday and bank holidays 10am–5pm.
Londonopia verdict: 5/5
Levels 35–36 | Free, advance booking recommended
The original celebrity among London’s free skyscraper viewpoints.
Sky Garden sits inside the bulbous upper reaches of 20 Fenchurch Street, better known as the Walkie Talkie. The building itself has never lacked critics, but there is something magnificently absurd about what has been built inside it: a vast glass atrium filled with terraces, plants, restaurants, bars and people taking photographs of themselves apparently discovering London for the first time.
The elevation is lower than Horizon 22 and The Lookout, but the position is excellent. The south-facing view across the Thames towards the Shard is particularly strong, while the elevated terraces inside allow you to wander between different sides of the building.
There is also an outdoor terrace, although its opening can depend on conditions.
What Sky Garden has that the others lack is atmosphere. You can linger among the planting, have coffee or drinks and make more of an occasion of it. The trade-off is that it can feel busy and conspicuously touristy.
Public access covers Levels 35 and 36 and remains free. Timed tickets are currently available up to three weeks in advance. Walk-ins are sometimes accepted when there is capacity, although the venue explicitly recommends booking.
How to visit: book online. Free public visiting hours are currently 10am–6pm Monday to Friday and 11am–9pm at weekends and on bank holidays. Tickets allow approximately one hour inside.
Londonopia verdict: 4.5/5
15th floor | Free | No booking
This may be the best of the lot.
Not the highest. Not the most famous. But quite possibly the one you will actually want to return to.
The Garden at 120 sits on top of the Fen Court development at 120 Fenchurch Street. Unlike the sealed observation galleries above, this is a genuine open-air roof garden.
There are trees, wisteria, planted beds, seating and a long water feature, but the real pleasure is the uninterrupted circuit around the edge. From here you get wonderful close views of the Walkie Talkie, Gherkin and surrounding towers while remaining sufficiently low to feel that you are still inside London rather than observing it from an aircraft.
There are 85 wisteria plants, more than 30 fruit trees and a 200-foot water feature. The garden was designed by landscape architects Latz + Partner.
And then there is its killer feature. You don’t need a ticket. You don’t need an app. You don’t need to work out what you will be doing at 3.20pm on the second Thursday three weeks from now.
You simply turn up.
Enter via Hogarth Court from Fenchurch Street or Fenchurch Avenue, go through security and take the dedicated lift to Level 15.
During the summer period from 1 April to 30 September the garden is currently open 10am–9pm on weekdays and until 5pm at weekends. Winter weekday closing is 6.30pm. It closes on bank holidays.
Bring lunch. Sit down. Watch people several hundred feet below you rushing to meetings that have nothing whatsoever to do with you.
Londonopia verdict: 5/5
6th floor | Free | No booking
Calling One New Change a skyscraper viewpoint would be stretching things. It is only six floors up.
But height isn’t everything.
The roof terrace sits almost directly opposite St Paul’s Cathedral and provides one of the most satisfying free views anywhere in central London. Christopher Wren’s dome appears enormous from here, rather than becoming one more landmark in a distant skyline.
It is particularly good around dusk, when the stone of the cathedral begins to glow and the City behind it starts switching itself on.
There is also a peculiar visual pleasure on the way in. One New Change was designed by Jean Nouvel with a glass corridor aligned towards St Paul’s, producing a near-symmetrical view of the dome reflected between the buildings. Photographers have been exploiting it ever since.
The terrace remains officially free and open to everyone, although access can be restricted temporarily for security, safety or events.
How to visit: walk into One New Change beside St Paul’s and take the lift to the sixth floor. No advance booking is required. The terrace is wheelchair accessible by ramp.
One New Change roof terrace information
Londonopia verdict: 4/5
For the highest view, go to Horizon 22.
For night-time views, try The Lookout on a Monday or Friday.
For somewhere to take visitors, Sky Garden still provides the biggest sense of occasion.
For photography and somewhere you can visit without organising your life three weeks beforehand, The Garden at 120wins.
And for St Paul’s, there is no contest: One New Change.
Better still, all five are close enough to combine into one slightly obsessive afternoon above London.
Start at One New Change beside St Paul’s, walk east to the Garden at 120 and Sky Garden, then head north towards The Lookout and Horizon 22 around Bishopsgate.
Five viewpoints. Several hundred vertical metres. Zero admission.
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