What is it? As you walk by, it's an overgrown but delightfully rampaging front garden for this sturdy telephone exchange. A closer look (trespassing slightly) reveals that the garden was planted in memory of "BT colleagues whom are no longer with us" which makes us feel both sweetly sad and marginally grammatically confused.
Where is it? Out the front of the BT Telephone Exchange building on Highbury Grove, N5. Behind railings, but easy to see.
Why has it tickled our fancy? Years ago the garden was formally planted, then recently a local school had a bash at cultivating a whole range of stuff in there and decorated the patch with bird boxes and finger paintings. This year, it seems to have been left to its own devices and is therefore a confused profusion of wild flowers, weeds and shrubs that are actually meant to be there. Walking along Highbury Grove from dusty, busy St Paul's Road, just over the railway bridge, the gardens can't help but catch your eye and perk you up, anytime of day.
Nature notes: Flanked by a mature and majestic Horse Chestnut tree and a slender Silver Birch the patches host a riot of blue forget-me-nots, daffodils, buttercups, unidentified shrubs and plants, wild grass, dandelions and probably much more that we're too horticulturally challenged to name. One bright bird box remains high up on the trunk of the Horse Chestnut.
View Londonist's Guide to Hidden Parks and Gardens in a larger map
