Queen Mary's Gardens

The lowdown

At the heart of Regent's Park, inside the Inner Circle, sits Queen Mary's Gardens, home to London's biggest collection of roses and free to everyone. Around twelve thousand plants of some four hundred varieties are arranged in beds and over arches, and in June the air is thick with scent.

It is not only roses. There is a pretty lake with a waterfall and a heron or two, a begonia garden, generous lawns and an avenue of climbing roses that frames the view perfectly for a photograph. The Open Air Theatre tucks into one corner if you fancy a paid evening later.

Because it sits in the middle of a royal park, you arrive through some of the loveliest gardens in the country anyway. A slow loop of the rose beds with an ice cream is a faultless free summer afternoon.