Escape London. In London.
Everyday London is exhausting with its crammed morning commutes, endless queues and tutting. Thankfully, London is blessed with countless green spaces to retreat to when urban living gets a little too much to bear. Every public park or garden has a different appeal and its own unique story. Here are three of my frequented, and very different, locations for escaping the daily grind of the capital without actually leaving. Quietly tucked away in a corner of South East London, Lesnes Abbey Woods is less than a ten minute walk from Abbey Wood rail station. Commissioned by Richard De Luci in 1178 and knocked down in 1534 following Henry VIII’s Dissolution of Monasteries, what remains of Lesnes Abbey captures the historical imagination with its arched entrances and crumbling columns. And, yes, at night it looks very spooky. Behind the Abbey ruins lie gardens inspired by the monastic past and, beyond that, ancient woodland with archaeological findings dating back to the Bronze Ag