Sky Garden tickets go on sale in one weekly batch, on a Monday morning, three weeks ahead.
Entry itself costs nothing. What you are booking is a timed slot, and the confusion around how those slots appear is why so many people conclude the place is permanently sold out. This page covers the release mechanic, the closure days that look like sell-outs, and the paid routes up when the free slots for your dates have gone.
Sky Garden Tickets
Free entry needs a timed slot booked in advance. The tickets below are the paid alternatives, and they cover hours the free slots do not.
Entry before the public slots begin, with a pastry and a hot drink. The quietest hour of the day up there.
🍳 Breakfast at Larch with Garden Entry
A cooked breakfast at Larch on the ground floor, then an entry ticket for the garden. Small groups, capped at seven.
🍽️ Dinner at Larch with Garden Entry
A two-course set meal with gelato or sorbet at Larch on the ground floor, an entry ticket, and access to the Sky Garden Music Night on the evenings it runs.
🥂 Music Night Entry with a Glass of Champagne
Evening entry with live music or a DJ set and a welcome glass of champagne. Standing access only, over-18s.
How Free Tickets Are Released
Free tickets are released every Monday morning, three weeks in advance, for the whole of that week at once. Bank holiday Mondays are skipped, so a bank holiday week pushes the release to the next working day.
Work it backwards and it stops being confusing. Find the Monday of the week you want to visit, count back three weeks, and that Monday morning is when your entire visit week goes on sale. Every day of that week appears at the same moment, which is why the whole thing feels like a scramble.
Sky Garden does not publish a release time. The official wording is Monday morning and nothing more precise, and the guides that state a time are guessing. Visitors report 10am London time with reasonable consistency, so that is the sensible time to be logged in, but treat it as what visitors report rather than something the venue has committed to.
Book through the official Sky Garden ticket store. There is no booking fee and nothing to pay.
Online bookings cover up to ten people. Groups of more than thirty are only accommodated on community days, every second Wednesday of the month, and booking separate tickets to sneak a larger group in on the same day gets the whole party turned away.
Cancellations go back into the pool, and Sky Garden actively asks people to release tickets they cannot use, so a week that shows nothing on Monday afternoon is worth another look on Thursday.
Closure Days and Sold-Out Weeks
A week showing no availability at all is usually a closure rather than a sell-out, and this is the single most useful thing to check before giving up.
The first Monday of most months is a maintenance closure. The garden is shut until 6pm and normal operation resumes at about half past six. On those days a restaurant reservation only gets you into the building at the time of your booking, and the garden and bar on levels 35 and 36 are off limits entirely.
Beyond that, individual days and sometimes runs of several days are closed for private events, and on those dates no free tickets are ever released. Nothing appears because nothing exists, not because someone got there first. The official closure dates page lists them ahead of time, and it is the first thing to open when a whole week comes up blank.
Closures are also capped. The planning agreement that created the public garden limits them to 112 hours a year across no more than 26 separate instances, so they cannot quietly become the norm.
Tickets & Prices
Early Access Before Opening
The one most people take, and the one to choose if you want photographs without other people in them. You go up before the public slots start, so the space is close to empty, and a breakfast pastry and a hot drink are included. WiFi and an optional audio-guide app come with it, in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, German and Italian.
What’s included
- Entry before the garden opens to public ticket holders
- One breakfast pastry and one hot drink
- WiFi and an optional audio-guide app
Good to know
- The outdoor terrace is excluded, and reports from visitors put its opening somewhere between ten and eleven, so the earliest sittings see the indoor space only. Several early buyers have felt short-changed by this.
- There is no guide and no headset device.
- Non-refundable, and wheelchair accessible.
- The two-hour duration is the length of the product, not a two-hour ticket to the garden.
Breakfast at Larch with Garden Entry
Breakfast first, garden second. You get a main, a pastry or muffin, and tea and coffee at Larch, plus an access ticket for the garden itself. Groups are capped at seven, which keeps it civilised. The useful thing about this one is timing, because it is a way in for people who missed the free-ticket window rather than an early start.
What’s included
- Breakfast at Larch: one main, a pastry or muffin, tea and coffee
- An access ticket to Sky Garden
- WiFi, an audio-guide app, and a small group capped at seven
Good to know
- Larch is at street level, opposite the Sky Garden entrance, not up in the garden. You eat downstairs and go up afterwards.
- The outdoor terrace and alcoholic drinks are excluded.
- Non-refundable, and wheelchair accessible.
Dinner at Larch with Garden Entry
A two-course set meal with gelato or sorbet at Larch, an entry ticket for the garden, and access to the Sky Garden Music Night on the evenings it runs. Groups capped at seven again. Feedback on this one is the most mixed of the four, and the complaints land on the meal rather than the view, so go in expecting the garden to be the point.
What’s included
- A two-course set meal at Larch with gelato or sorbet
- An access ticket to Sky Garden
- Access to the Sky Garden Music Night, on days it runs
- WiFi, an audio-guide app, and a small group capped at seven
Good to know
- Larch is on the ground floor opposite the entrance, so dinner is at street level and the garden comes after.
- The outdoor terrace, alcoholic drinks and soft drinks are all excluded.
- Music Night days vary, so check the date you are booking.
- Non-refundable, and wheelchair accessible.
Music Night Entry with a Glass of Champagne
Entry on a Music Night, with live bands or DJ sets and a welcome glass of champagne, or a non-alcoholic swap if you would rather. Standing access only, which is worth taking literally, because seating up there gets claimed early and standing is exactly what it says.
What’s included
- Entry on a Music Night, with live music or DJ sets
- One welcome glass of champagne, with a non-alcoholic option
- WiFi and an audio guide
Good to know
- Standing access only, and over-18s.
- The outdoor terrace is excluded, and it closes at 6pm in any case, so this is an indoor evening.
- Bring physical photographic identification. Evening entry runs on Challenge 25 and a scan on a phone has been refused.
- Non-refundable, and wheelchair accessible.
Why Book in Advance
Where to Buy Sky Garden Tickets
Online in advance (recommended)
Free tickets come from the official Sky Garden store and nowhere else. Paid tickets, the breakfast and dinner packages and the Music Night entry are booked through the ticket links on this page. Either way you are choosing a date and a time slot, and the slot is what you are actually buying.
How to book
Choose your date
Choose the number of people
Pick a time slot
Pay, if the ticket is a paid one
Get your confirmation by email
Free tickets can be cancelled and returned to the pool, and Sky Garden asks you to do exactly that if your plans change. The paid packages are non-refundable, so check the date before you pay.
At the door on the day
Walk-ins are real but they are never guaranteed. Free walk-ins are accepted at staff discretion when there is space, and the consistent advice from people who work in the building is to turn up as they open in the morning and not leave it any later. Paid walk-in tickets are also sold at the door for early mornings and evening Music Nights.
Do not build a trip around it. On a quiet weekday morning it works often enough; on a Saturday afternoon in August it does not.
A restaurant table instead of a ticket
A reservation at Darwin Brasserie or Fenchurch Restaurant replaces the free entry ticket outright. You do not book anything separately, and diners are directed to a separate desk on the right-hand side of reception. Arrive no more than thirty minutes before your booking.
Two honest caveats. It guarantees entry and usually shortens the queue, but it does not skip it, and diners with confirmed bookings have still waited when a lift is down. And it does not apply to Larch, which is a separate ground-floor restaurant.
Things to Know Before You Go
One hour, from when you enter
The free slot gives you an hour inside from the moment you get in. Enforcement is loose when the place is quiet and firm when it is busy. The two-hour figure that appears on paid packages is the length of the package.
Fifteen minutes late and you rebook
Arrive at the queue more than fifteen minutes after the time on your ticket and it is unlikely you will be let in. A timed slot also does not let you in early, so turning up an hour ahead achieves nothing.
You queue even with a ticket
Join from Fenchurch Street and Philpot Lane and stay on the right-hand side for pre-booked tickets. There is more than one queue, and airport-style security screening comes after the first one.
Bring photographic ID
Sky Garden asks for photographic identification alongside your ticket, and the name should match the reservation. Challenge 25 operates in the evening, and physical ID is needed for evening walk-ins.
No suitcases, no storage
Large bags and suitcases are refused, and hand luggage only passes if it fits the X-ray at 615 by 410mm. There are no storage facilities and nothing can be left with reception or security, so a suitcase ends the visit before it starts.
Children need their own tickets
Over-fives need a ticket of their own, under-fives do not. Under-16s must be with an adult of 18 or over, a maximum of three children per adult, and they cannot enter after 6pm on weekdays or 9pm at weekends.
Tips for Buying Tickets
- Hedge with two slots. One forum regular books two different days on release morning and cancels the one the weather rules out. The cancelled ticket goes back to the pool, so nobody loses.
- Aim mid-morning on a weekday. Sunset and evening slots are the ones that vanish. A Tuesday at eleven is still there hours later.
- Refresh a full week rather than abandoning it. Cancellations appear daily, and a week that looked hopeless on Monday often has gaps by midweek.
- Check the closure calendar before you conclude anything. Empty weeks are far more often closures than sell-outs.
- Do not buy an early ticket for the terrace. The outdoor terrace is excluded from the early-access and dining products and does not open first thing, so an early booking buys you the indoor space.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Sky Garden tickets free?
Yes. Entry is free and there is no booking fee, but you need a timed ticket booked in advance rather than turning up on the day.
What time are Sky Garden tickets released?
Sky Garden does not publish a release time. The official wording is Monday morning and nothing more specific. Visitors consistently report 10am London time, so that is the sensible time to be online, but it is not something the venue has stated.
How far in advance can I book Sky Garden?
Three weeks. Each Monday morning releases the whole of the week that starts three weeks later.
Why are Sky Garden tickets always sold out?
Often they are not. Weekend and evening slots do go quickly, but a whole week with nothing available is usually a maintenance or private-event closure, and on those dates no tickets are released at all. Check the closure dates before assuming demand is the problem.
Can I get Sky Garden tickets on the day?
Sometimes. Free walk-ins are accepted at staff discretion when there is space, and first thing in the morning is when they are most likely to work. Paid walk-in tickets are sold at the door for early mornings and evening music nights.
Does a restaurant booking include Sky Garden entry?
A table at Darwin Brasserie or Fenchurch Restaurant replaces the free entry ticket. Larch does not, because it is a separate restaurant at street level, and a Larch booking offers garden access on a best-efforts basis rather than a guaranteed one.