City Garden at Sky Garden Bars

City Garden is the dedicated private events space within Sky Garden, set on Level 36 of the Walkie Talkie building, 155 metres above the City of London. The space sits within the landscaped gardens themselves — guests arrive through the planting, not into a function room bolted onto a restaurant. North-facing panoramic views stretch across St Paul’s Cathedral, the Gherkin, Canary Wharf, and the City skyline beyond.

City Garden at Sky Garden — The Setting

The event platform accommodates 300 guests for a standing reception or 150 for a seated dinner. Floor-to-ceiling curved glass walls flood the space with natural light during the golden hour and frame the cityscape after dark. The botanical surroundings — designed by award-winning landscape architects Gillespies — add texture that no amount of event styling can replicate. It’s a blank canvas in the sense that theming and branding can be layered on, but the baseline setting is already extraordinary. Natural light, mature planting, and the visible drama of the London skyline create an environment that shifts through the evening. Arrival drinks at 6:30pm feel different from dinner at 8pm, which feels different from the later part of the night as building lights across the City create a second skyline. The views aren’t a static backdrop — they change, and guests notice. The space works without needing heavy production. The setting does the atmospheric work, freeing event budgets for food, entertainment, and guest experience rather than decor and lighting rigs. That said, the blank canvas format accepts theming and branding for events that want it.

How Events Run in City Garden

The space is available Monday to Friday from 6pm to midnight, including setup and de-rig time. This window covers everything from the first piece of equipment arriving to the last guest leaving — it’s tighter than it looks, so events with complex production should factor in setup demands carefully. In-house catering is provided exclusively by rhubarb Hospitality Collection, with menus tailored to the event format. Rhubarb’s reputation across London’s premium event venues means the catering matches the setting — this isn’t a venue where you’re covering average food with spectacular views. Corporate receptions and client entertaining are the natural sweet spot. The combination of the City address, the botanical setting, and the impact of arriving 36 floors up in a garden makes it particularly strong for impression-driven events — client entertainment where the venue itself communicates something about the host. Summer parties feel like an extension of the venue’s identity: the planting, the light, the views work together without needing any additional production budget. Christmas parties benefit from the same panoramic views lit up across the winter skyline, trading botanical warmth for nighttime sparkle. Seated dinners for up to 150 take the views as a centrepiece — every table has a vantage point. Standing receptions encourage guest movement through different areas of the garden, with each angle offering a different slice of the panorama.

City Garden’s Place Within Sky Garden

City Garden is one of several hireable spaces across the wider Sky Garden complex. For events needing more capacity or variety, it connects to Darwin Brasserie on the same level (50–70 guests, south-facing Thames views), Fenchurch Restaurant on Level 37 (up to 46 diners), the Viñoly Room for private dining of 16, and full exclusive hire opening up the Sky Pod Bar and outdoor viewing platform on Level 35. The ability to scale from 150 seated in City Garden to 700 standing across the full venue makes Sky Garden flexible for organisations hosting multiple event sizes throughout the year. Monument, Bank, and Fenchurch Street stations are each within a five-minute walk. Express lifts take guests from street level directly to the venue floors — the journey from pavement to garden takes less than a minute.