Cherry blossom St James's Park
Photograph: Andy Parsons
Photograph: Andy Parsons

The best places to see cherry blossom in London

Check out these bloomin’ brilliant spots to catch London’s cherry blossom season in 2024

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The 2024 cherry blossom season is drawing closer, so it’s time to gear up for the capital’s special colourful spectacle that signals warmer days are on the way. 

Cherry blossom season in Japan is a major event, with vistors from around the world flocking over to get a glimpse of the petals in full bloom but if you can’t make it over for this year’s sakura season London has plenty of bloomin’ marvellous places to see the flowers. The pastel pink blooms tend to grace our parks from April, but in warmer years this can be as early as much, whereas in cooler years as late as May. 

You can find cherry blossoms in some of London’s best parks and lining pretty suburban streets. From the candyfloss arches of Greenwich Park, to the Cherry Walk in Kew Gardens, London folk are spoilt for choice. Get your camera at the ready and find out if one of these top places to see cherry blossom in London is conveniently on your doorstep.

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Where to find cherry blossom in London

  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Greenwich

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.

  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Regent’s Park

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.

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  • Attractions
  • Sightseeing
  • Westminster

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.

  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Kew

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. 

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  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Kensington

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.

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  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Holland Park

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. Its no Hirosaki Park, but its a beautiful, unusually tranquil pocket of London that's always at its best in spring. 

  • Things to do
  • Cultural centres
  • Alexandra Palace

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.

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9. Crouch End

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. 

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