The best places to see cherry blossom in London

Just beyond the cricket pitch in Greenwich Park is a road of bursting cherry trees that leads you straight to a Georgian villa called Ranger’s House. The tangled branches create a candyfloss arch that makes every pic look like the backdrop of a Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting. Careful not to slip on the magenta carpet of mushed petals.

Walk through the Chester Road entrance and (if you’re lucky enough to catch them) you’ll find an avenue belted by tall white Sunset Boulevard-variety cherry blossoms. When the light hits, they’re all ‘Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up’. For more cherry-chasing, hit the south end of Avenue Gardens, where a cluster of pink trees hang over the path like a big bubblegum cloud.

The best way to see the ostentatious blooms of St James’s Park is to travel in full circle. At Storey’s Gate, you’ll meet a clique of eight or so pink trees; keep walking to the Buckingham Palace side to find elegant cherries leaning over the lake. They are among the first to flower most years, so go as soon as the season gets underway to see the petals before they fall.

London’s botany HQ should be booming with blooms by mid to late April. Kew’s hunt is less of a challenge: it has its own Cherry Walk, starting at the Rose Garden at the back of Palm House, which is home to Japanese cherries. Two parallel rows with 15 trees apiece form a blushing runway to Temperate House. 

West London is steeped in sakura during cherry-blossom season. Many of the fancy pastel homes of Notting Hill Gate are fronted by branches covered in flamingo florets. But you’ll get grumpy looks for draping yourself over the gable end of a mansion for photo ops. Instead, try Kensington Gardens. Start at Lancaster Gate where you’ll be greeted by blooms and walk to the Albert Memorial, which has six big, blowsy pink trees nearby.

How do you know it’s spring in London? When the pale rosy pom-poms on the tree outside St Paul’s Cathedral make an appearance. They popped early in previous years, so to be on the safe side visit soon if you’re after a petal-framed picture of the dome. 

The Kyoto Gardens in Holland Park was built to celebrate the Japan Festival held in London and across the UK in 1991. It’s home to koi carp, a little bridge at the foot of a waterfall and, you guessed it – cherry blossom. It’s no Hirosaki Park, but it’s a beautiful, unusually tranquil pocket of London that's always at its best in spring. 

A line of skinny cherry trees point straight towards Ally Pally. It’s not the most abundant collection of blossoms in the city, but there are plenty of green patches where you can settle in for a hanami (flower viewing) picnic.

The arborealness of N8 is too often overlooked, but the area usually has some healthy blossoms to offer come April. Just around the corner from Hornsey Town Hall (and Flashback Records, fyi) is Cecile Park, a road lined with pink prunus ‘kanzan’. The billowing trees transform it into one of London’s prettiest streets.