The Kensington Roof Gardens were built in 1938 on what was, at the time, the Derry & Toms department store building, and thus were long known as Derry & Toms Roof Gardens. Then a high-end retailer in Kensington’s fashionable shopping district, Derry & Toms sought to provide their well-heeled customers and the general public alike with a unique leisure space offering sweeping views of the London skyline. To design the gardens, the store commissioned landscape architect Ralph Hancock, who had also designed the rooftop gardens at Rockefeller Center in New York.The gardens encompasses 6000 square meters (1.5 acres) laid out around a central clubhouse.
