Kensington Roof gardens - wikipedia Kensington Roof gardens This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( March 2017 ) The Roof Garden The Roof Gardens Derry and Toms Roof Gardens Kensington Roof Gardens Type roof garden Location 99 High Street Kensington London Coordinates 51 ° 30 ′ 4 '' N 0 ° 11 ′ 31 '' W ﻿ / ﻿ 51.50111 ° N 0.19194 ° W ﻿ / 51.50111 ; - 0.19194 Coordinates : 51 ° 30 ′ 4 '' N 0 ° 11 ′ 31 '' W ﻿ / ﻿ 51.50111 ° N 0.19194 ° W ﻿ / 51.50111 ; - 0.19194 Area 6000 m Created 1936 -- 1938 Founder Trevor Bowen Designer Ralph Hancock Open yes Status listed Designation Grade II Website roofgardens.com The Roof Garden ( formerly known as Derry and Toms Roof Gardens and Kensington Roof Gardens ) is a roof garden covering 6000 m ( 1.5 acres ) on top of the former Derry & Toms building on Kensington High Street, in central London, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Since the 1980s the garden has been used as a restaurant and club. The gardens are not visible from Kensington High Street. Contents 1 History 2 The gardens 3 Gallery 4 Notes History Derry and Toms department store was opened in Kensington in 1933. The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a landscape architect, on the instructions of Trevor Bowen ( then vice-president of Barkers, the department store giant that owned the site and constructed the building ). They cost £ 25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter. Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £ 120,000 was raised during the next 30 years. The building housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975. Since the 1980s the garden has been used as a restaurant and club. The Roof Garden was listed as a Grade II site by English Heritage in 1998. The gardens It is divided into three themed gardens : The Kensington Roof Gardens are barely visible from Kensington High Street. a Spanish garden, in a Moorish style based upon the Alhambra in Spain, with fountains, vine - covered walkways and Chusan palms ; a Tudor style garden, characterised by its archways, secret corners and hanging wisteria. Roses, lilies and lavender contribute the rich summer scent to the garden ; an English woodland garden, with over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a garden pond that is the home to pintail ducks and four flamingos called Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks. There are over 30 different species of trees in the woodland garden, including trees from the original planting over sixty years ago, despite having only a metre of soil in which to grow. Although they are on a rooftop, the trees were made the subject of tree preservation orders in 1976. Gallery 99 Kensington High Street entrance on Derry Street. The street - level entrance to the roof gardens. One of the windows in the walled garden. Plaque in the garden showing Trevor Bowen, director of Barkers of Kensington Ralph Hancock Commemorative Plaque, unveiled by members of the Hancock family on 29 January 2012 One of the pink flamingos that live in the gardens A tent in the Spanish garden Notes Jump up ^ Ralph Hancock F.R.H.S. -- Landscape Artist - Derry and Toms roof garden, Parks & Gardens UK. Retrieved 2011 - 11 - 29. ^ Jump up to : The Roof Garden, 99 High St, Kensington -- 1001406. Historic England. Accessed March 2017. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kensington_Roof_Gardens&oldid=791453052 '' Categories : Roof gardens Virgin Group Nightclubs in London Parks and open spaces in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Gardens in London Virgin Limited Edition Kensington Department store buildings in the United Kingdom House of Fraser Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from March 2017 All articles needing additional references Use dmy dates from August 2015 Use British English from August 2015 Coordinates on Wikidata All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 20 July 2017, at 10 : 46. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: when did the roof gardens above kensington open to the public
Answer: 1980s