An insider's guide to the world's greatest 'secret' gardens, green spaces, and pocket parks tucked away in cities around the globe

Cities everywhere are graced with charming but little-known, off-the-beaten-track gardens and green spaces, offering urbanites in the know a chance to immerse themselves in nature. These often small, well-kept secrets are not as grand as those on the tourist trail but are equally delightful and rewarding to visit, if you know where to find them. Green Escapes is the revelatory insider's guide to these secret gems. Each of them open to the public, the gardens range from pocket parks, courtyards, and rooftop terraces, to community gardens and more.

About the Author

Dr Toby Musgrave is an authority on garden history with many books to his name. He devised and presented the BBC Radio 4 series 'The British Garden', and has written for many magazines and newspapers. He teaches garden and plant history at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, and has also lectured at Oxford and Bristol Universities, and the Royal Horticultural Society. He was consultant editor for Phaidon's The Gardener's Garden (2014).

Reviews

"Leads us down the garden path to more than 260 charming but little-known green spaces where urbanites and travelers can linger... One of our favorite spring picks... Go forth and garden gaze."-MOTTO/TIME

"The perfect tool for busy urbanites looking to discover tranquil spaces within their city. Featuring 150 metropolises, it showcases quiet courtyards and lawns, contemplative rooftop terraces and conservatories, and spirited community gardens."-First Magazine

"The first 'secret garden' city guide to feature a groundbreaking range of over 260 gardens in more than 150 cities worldwide. A treasure map of charming little-known gardens and hidden spaces, this amazing guide is your key to discovering leafy gems."-Project Calm

"[A] travel guide, but with a twist."-New York Magazine Online

"From pocket parks to rooftop terraces and greenhouses galore - secret gardens can be found in the wildest of urban jungles... Packed with quirky trivia and stunning photography, Toby Musgrave's latest coffee-table book, Green Escapes: The Guide to Secret Urban Gardens, shows where you can find an oasis in some of the world's busiest cities."-TheClub BA

"An oasis amidst the hardscape of a large city is like a breath of fresh air... The little known, rarely visited and most beautiful green escapes in our busiest global centres... Toby Musgrave, a historian of gardens, has complied 260 of these green escapes... While working on a book about large private gardens in rural settings [...] Musgrave started thinking of the small, publicly accessible spaces tucked away in major cities, the kinds of havens he seeks out when travelling."-Australian Financial Review Magazine

"Sized perfectly to toss into a backpack... Wanderlust-inspiring."-Garden & Gun Online

"[Toby Musgrave] has given residents and visitors alike a lifeline with a guide not to the obvious green spaces in cities across the world but to the "compact hidden gems and secret oases" that are little known... It's a comprehensive list... What I particularly liked was the classification of the gardens with symbols alongside the garden giving an idea of its type."-TheChattyGardener.com

"An encyclopaedia of gardens that are open to the public, but not (yet) famous."-Elle Decoration

"If you like to discover hidden green spaces, keep this book close at hand when planning your next city break... This is a guide focused on the unfamiliar and the intimate, places often unknown even to many of the local residents... I know I'll be packing the book when I head off on any city breaks."-Gardens Illustrated

"If garden tourism used to be exclusively for budding botanists, well, no more."-Atlas (Etihad Airways in-flight magazine)

"Captivating."-Town & Country

"Heads off the beaten track to unearth the world's finest hidden spaces. Covering 260 gardens in more than 150 cities worldwide, this new travel guide will be the key to seeking out leafy gems away from tourist hotspots."-TheCultureTrip.com

"If you look for them, cities around the world are full of secret gardens and green spaces, many of which are unknown even to locals. New book Green Escapes explores these hidden courtyards, former industrial lands and reclaimed rooftops."-Hawkins

"The book that show[s]... in any busy global city, green is good."-Atlas Obscura

"It's a small book you can easily take on a trip, and you'll be using it for years as you travel the globe."-Garden Design Online

"A perfect guide for kicking off any urban adventure this summer."-Surface

"From walled garden oases to window boxes, city dwellers have a talent for making the most of small plots... [Green Escapes] is a guidebook to more than 250 little-known green spaces from across the world that vary in size, landscaping and purpose; the pocket-sized drama of Seattle's Waterfall Garden Park is in there, but so is the quietly haunting expanse of Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery."-Daily Telegraph

Book Information
ISBN 9780714876122
Author Toby Musgrave
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint Phaidon Press Ltd
Publisher Phaidon Press Ltd
Weight(grams) 622g
Dimensions(mm) 184mm * 124mm * 34mm