Post Building roof garden & viewing platform

 The roof garden atop the Post Building in central London is a beautiful and peaceful place offering great views over London. It is not as high as the viewing platforms on the skyscrapers in the City, but is still tall enough to look over the landscape from a peaceful setting. And not many people know about it. When I went on a sunny September day there were only 4 other people there when I arrived and after a while I was the only person and had the place to myself.

The Post Building is located by the junction with 5 roads, with New Oxford Street on the north side and Museum St (which leads to the British Museum) on the west. The site used to be a Royal Mail sorting office and has now been transformed and used by corporate offices and although the main entrance is on Museum St, the entrance to the roof garden is through a small door on New Oxford St. There is now a permanent sign over the door.

Inside the small lobby you have to present photo ID and go through a security search. Fake staircase -

A lift then takes you up to the roof garden on level 9. Stepping out I was surprised at how quiet it was, no traffic noise except for the occasional siren.

The Shard on the right and the City centre background -

The Post Office tower and in the centre is St Georg'es Church with the British Museum behind -   

Along one wall is a series of bee houses with information about the bees -

Russel Square, this building is now a hotel -

Looking south into the sun, with the London Eye (and a crane in the way!) and Victoria coach station to the right -

There is an incredibly clean toilet. Although a large part of the roof is not open to public access, the roof garden is definitely worth a visit and it is especially nice to be away from hoards of tourists!

See more on The Londonist. And on Look Up London.

 

The Garden at 120 viewing platform

For some years there were only a couple of viewing platforms on high rise London buildings that were open to the public. One of the best known is the Sky Garden in the walkie talkie building at 20 Fenchurch Street. It opened in 2017 and was London's highest public garden, on the 36th to 38th floors. I haven't been up there as the only time I tried to visit, it was closed!

In the last year or so, there are more high rise viewing platforms opening up. In April 2023 I went to The Garden at 120. This is at the top of the Fen Court building at 120 Fenchurch Street. At 15 storeys up, it is London's largest public rooftop space. 

Entry is free and there is no need to book. The day I went there was a queue but it moved quickly. You have to go through security before taking the lift.

As I got out of the lift on the 15th floor, I was surprised at how big the garden is. 

The walkie talkie building with the Sky Garden -

The Gherkin, with 41 floors -

St Paul's Cathedral -

There were quite a few gulls flying around, they probably scavenge crumbs from people eating in the gardens. Tower bridge and the Tower of London -

Looking (through glass) to the south with the Crystal Palace masts on the horizon -

And time to go back down -

 

Tate Modern viewing platform

 On a rainy day in Oct 2019 I went to the Tate Modern at Bankside, on the south bank of the Thames in London. It is a large art gallery based in a former power station. I went to see the  building, not the art. 

View from the pedestrian bridge over the Thames -

Looking down on the main turbine hall, with the large Kara Walker sculpture , Fons Americanus -

The main reason for my visit was to go to the viewing platform on the 10th floor. 

At the time you could walk around the 4 sides and looked right down into many of the nearby apartments that had floor to ceiling glass windows, and no privacy. 

As it was a rainy day, I decided I would go back on a sunny day and put it on my "to do list". But my plans were thwarted as the viewing platform had to close as 5 owners of the nearby luxury apartments took on the Tate Modern in a court case. They said that people looking down into their homes was an invasion of their privacy. They actually won the case. 

It wasn't until 4 Sept 2023 that the viewing platform partially reopened. Now visitors are only allowed to go along 2 sides - fortunately the side facing the Thames and the City is one of them. Barriers prevent visitors from going to the south and west sides and there are plenty of "no photo" signs and security staff. 

The platform is outdoors. Inside is a cafe called Level 10. 

A day on a ranch in Uruguay

Our ship docked at Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay and the only city. The name Montevideo means “I see a hill”. The dock is on the River Plate, at Montevideo Bay, not really the ocean. It is a really wide estuary. The River Plate can be seen on this map flows south towards Buenos Aires.

I had chosen to spend a day on a ranch, La Rabida. We drove through and out of Montevideo and along the highway.

Estancia La Rabida is huge, 3650 acres, with English Hereford and Angus cattle. Whilst waiting for everyone we had a look at some horses and cows before getting a welcome drink

The father and daughter then told us about the farm and their life, then we went over to see some Criollo (Crioulo) horses with are used as they are obedient and hardy, better than Arabians. On command they all lined up. Then one was used to show us how it is saddled and how all the saddle parts are used for the gaucho to sleep on.

We then went for a ride (hayride) around some of the ranch, there was a variety of transport including sitting on hay bales on trailers pulled by tractors and even an old car, there was an A Model Ford and horse drawn buggy. Hats were provided for those who wanted protection from the sun.

 

We saw a group of steers, they are bought at 200 kg, fed on grass until 400 kg, then fed on cereal (?) till 600 kg. Cereal gives more fat in the meat. Much of the meat is exported, most to China. The ranch also grows soya beans. We stopped and walked down a cobbled path to a beach on the River Plate. It was hard to believe this was a river and not the sea.

Back at the ranch we were told about the aquifers,  which can be used in drought. Uruguay sits on 2 big aquifers. From Wikipedia : "Uruguay shares one of the largest groundwater reserves in the world, the Guarani Aquifer, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay. The Guarani aquifer covers 1,200,000 square kilometers and has a storage capacity of 40,000 km3".

We saw a “black man’s ear” tree. I think this is Enterolobium contortisiliquum, the pacara earpod tree. 

Two more interesting trees, one that grows on another rather than having roots in the ground, and also a tall tree that produces enormous cones, Bunya pine, actually a conifer not a pine.

Finally it was lunchtime. An asado (Spanish) is the traditional technique and social event of having a barbecue in various South American countries - Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. An Asado consists of beef, pork, chicken, chorizo, and morcilla (black pudding) cooked on a grill, called a Parrilla, or an open fire.

First we had some sausage and grilled veg which was lovely. I tried not to eat too much as I wanted to save plenty of room for the main meats.

For the main meal, we sat on hay bales in the dining area. There was salad and meat – beef, chicken and pork with potato. Needless to say I had seconds. The beer and wine was free flowing. For dessert there was rice pudding and dulce leche with cheese squares. Dulce de leche, also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection popular in Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours.

Some people had a go at milking a cow, then 2 calves came and drank. Then we had a go at sitting on a cow hide and being pulled by a horse, which was fun.

Sadly it was time to go. We were given  a delicious biscuit then headed for the coaches.