Kyoto Garden

The Japanese or Kyoto Garden is a fenced garden within the much larger Holland Park. Even in February (the coldest month in London), it is worth a visit if you are in the area.

Very atmospheric - and a great place for photos!

This beautiful Japanese garden is worth visiting in its own tight, quite apart from the other gardens and features in Holland Park. If, for example, you are visiting the Design Museum nearby, then you should continue onto here.

Created in 1992 to celebrate the Japanese Festival, it is small and, as you would expect, beautifully landscaped around the central pond filled with carp. Intended as a place for peace and contemplation, it is best visited at a relatively quiet time as it is very popular and there is a one-way system in place as a coronavirus precaution. The bridge at the waterfall is particularly popular for photographs.

If you wish to continue to explore Japanese culture, then it is also worth travelling along Kensington High Street to Japan House.

The Kyoto Garden offers a unique, Japanese-style landscape that’s perfect for quiet relaxation with tranquil tiered waterfalls and a serene pond full of beautiful koi carp. The garden was opened in 1991 as a gift from the city of Kyoto to commemorate the long friendship between Japan and Great Britain.

Next to the Kyoto Garden, you can find another Japanese garden. In July 2012, the Fukushima Memorial Garden was officially opened. It commemorates the gratitude of the Japanese people to the British people for their support following the natural disasters Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami that struck in March 2011.

It’s a very beautiful but small garden. We went on bank holiday Monday which means it was very busy and we weren’t able to stay to walk the full circumference of the garden as people were queuing for the waterfall shots. It would be nice to go back to see the cherry blossoms and when it is less busy to get a waterfall shot of my own!

A very peaceful and well maintained little garden, and it was lovely to see the large koi fish in the pond. The whole park is well signposted, so it was easy to find this garden. It was so quiet you could almost forget you were in London. The path down to the waterfall may not be accessible for people who are unsteady on their feet, and I don’t think the small bridge would be easy to cross for a person in a wheelchair.

These peaceful gardens in the middle of Holland Park are a delight to visit – even on a winters day. You may wander and take in the delights of the quiet right in the middle of London and check out the flowers and ponds plus the beautiful peacocks that wander the park. There is a café if you want light refreshments and some very nice sculptures and decorations. Altogether a nice place to take some time out. There is no admission fee.

Opened in 1991 the Kyoto Garden was a gift to London from the people of Kyoto. Built around its central ponds it is a serene spot in the middle of Holland Park and is well worth searching out when in the park. But as others have said it is not the biggest of areas and is rightly popular and therefore busy on a fine weather day, so it might not be so serene if you visit during the summer school holidays for example.
Today it is one of two Japanese gardens in Holland Park, with the addition of the Fukushima Memorial garden in 2012 which was gifted by the then Japanese ambassador to commemorate the gratitude of the Japanese people to the British for their support following the natural disasters that struck Japan in March 2011. This is just to the south of the Kyoto garden and although is not as formal it also is worth a visit along with the Kyoto Garden. Some of the photos loaded here are from the Fukushima garden

When reading and looking about this place it looked like an absolutely beautiful and spacious place to go. When we got there it was still fabulously beautiful but not as it looks on pictures, there was hardly anywhere to sit and it was rammed with families with small kids. However it was a nice enough walk and in a nice area of london.

This is a beautiful and popular little Japanese style garden, set within Holland Park. We walked from Earl's Court station and it was an easy route and once within the park, well signposted.
The gardens are clean and the wildlife is obviously very used to human visitors and we were able to see herons and also a squirrel that was literally eating out of someones hand.
I can imagine the garden gets crowded in the summer but in April it was peaceful and there was plenty of seating. After the visit the cafe is just a few minutes walk away.

it’s. fine.

nice quiet peace in the city, but there are many great parks to find that in London.

this one is tiny even for a japanese garden, done in 5 minutes, and often crowded.