London's newest garden opened over the weekend, above what will eventually be Canary Wharf's Crossrail station. At the moment the station's just an extension of the usual shopping and eating spaces, like much of the rest of the warren that makes up the area beneath the skyscrapers. But there's an Everyman cinema opening on 15 May, and a second Ippudo coming in June.
But what of the garden? Well, it's definitely more garden-y than the one atop the Walkie Talkie, though that's not saying much. And you don't have to reserve a slot or go through airport-style security to wander round the Canary Wharf roof garden. There are places to pause, but they're more edges of raised beds than benches (this won't be a particularly comfortable place to have lunch). Central paths make it clear this is a pleasant way of getting from A to B rather than somewhere to linger, and it's still quite sterile — we felt as though as were walking through a real-life architect's rendering (the soundtrack of Badly Drawn Boy didn't help).
It should eventually develop into something a bit less glossy, though we're not sure we'll ever get quite used to the bubble-like roof (on sunny days head for the middle, where there's a section open to the elements). As for the trains, they'll turn up sometime in 2018.
Find the new station to the north of the HSBC and Bank of America Merrill Lynch buildings.