London: Hidden Gardens & Parks

A 230-metre Edwardian pergola built by Lord Leverhulme winding above West Hampstead Heath — stone columns dripping with wisteria and roses, and views across London from a platform almost nobody knows exists. Free, open daily 8:30 to dusk

A tropical rainforest and arid house hidden on Level 3 of the Barbican Centre — 2,000 species of exotic plants in a glass greenhouse above the brutalist concrete. Free but ticketed; book online (released monthly). Open Fri 18:30–21:30, Sat–Sun 12:00–19:00

One of London's Magnificent Seven Victorian garden cemeteries — 12 acres of ancient woodland, 200,000 graves, and a ruined Gothic chapel at its heart. A Local Nature Reserve and one of the most atmospherically overgrown places in north London. Free, open daily 8:00–dusk

A small garden near St Paul's with the Watts Memorial — a wall of hand-painted ceramic plaques commemorating ordinary Londoners who died saving strangers, each one a small devastating story. One of the most moving free spaces in the city. Open daily

A Japanese garden donated by the city of Kyoto, hidden inside Holland Park — stone lanterns, a waterfall, koi carp, and maples that turn extraordinary colours in autumn. The peacocks that roam Holland Park occasionally wander through. Free, always open

A raised Victorian bandstand and garden built on the rubble of the Old Nichol slum — one of London's first social housing schemes. Surrounded by the Boundary Estate's arts-and-crafts blocks, it's the quiet eye at the centre of Shoreditch's storm