If you like to discover hidden green spaces, keep this book close at hand when planning your next city break.
Any green space, whatever its size is a welcome sight but in a city, community gardens, public parks and rooftop gardens offer urbanites a lifeline; shelter from the harsh lines of the surrounding concrete-scape.
These verdant places are the focus of Toby Musgrave’s new book. Starting with Oceania, Musgrave works his way across six continents noting off-the-beaten-track, secluded gardens, 280 in total, in 164 cities around the world. Each page is a new garden to seek out and explore and the types of garden included range from botanic and historic gardens to courtyard gardens and pocket parks.
In his introduction, he makes reference to the famous parks of some of the world’s largest cities and notes the important role they play but explains that this is a guide focused on the unfamiliar and the intimate, places often unknown even to many of the local residents.
Look up New York and you won’t find Central Park, instead you’re guided towards Elevated Acre, a rooftop garden on the east side of the financial district where you can take in a panorama over the harbour and East River to Brooklyn while surrounded by textural planting. In Paris it’s le Jardin Saint-Gilles-du-Grand-Veneur, a pocket park hidden behind the 17th-century Hôtel du Grand Veneur he recommends visiting – in June to take in the scent of the rose garden.
Limited by space, the description of all the gardens is relatively short, but enough to draw you in and I know I’ll be packing the book when I head off on any city breaks because, as Musgrave explains, these hidden spaces are ‘a pleasure to be in and from where one emerges revitalised, uplifted, inspired and ready to face the city once more’.