GRO Rooftop Walk: Exploring London’s Roofscapes

In August, GRO members came together for a rooftop walk across London, designed to showcase the potential of the spaces above our cities and to explore what can be achieved when rooftops are considered as valuable places in their own right.

The event saw three groups of around 20 members and guests each make their way across the capital, visiting a series of inspiring rooftop spaces.  Each group started at a different location but all took in CitizenM, The Culpeper Pub on Commercial Street and 120 Fenchurch Street.  The roofs all offered something different, but together they told a clear and powerful story: our rooftops can do far more than simply sit above the buildings below.

• They can support nature
• They can provide amenity
• They can create social value, and
• They can offer calm, beauty and perspective in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world.

Throughout the tour, members were able to see how effectively designed rooftop spaces can become extensions of living, working and community environments. In dense urban areas, where ground-level space is under constant pressure, roofs offer an opportunity to create places that reconnect people with nature. Planting, views, fresh air, biodiversity and thoughtful design can all contribute to a different experience of the city.

This connection to nature is increasingly important when we think about health, wellbeing and neurodiversity. Many people spend their days in enclosed, noisy and overstimulating environments. For those who experience stress, sensory overwhelm or neurodivergent processing differences, access to calm and restorative spaces can make a meaningful difference. Rooftops can provide places to pause, reset, think, talk and recover. They can also offer more relaxed settings for meetings, conversations and collaboration, helping people feel more comfortable and, in turn, more productive.

The walk also reinforced the importance of using space well. In London, every square metre matters. Roofscapes give us the chance to turn underused areas into places that serve people, support biodiversity and contribute to the wider urban environment. Whether used for hospitality, community, workplace amenity or biodiversity, each of the roofs visited showed how considered design can create real impact.

There was also something simple and powerful about seeing the city from above. Everything looks better from above. The view changes the way we understand the city. It gives us space to breathe, to observe and to appreciate the relationship between buildings, streets, people and nature.

The event concluded at a rooftop bar at London Bridge, where members gathered to network, share reflections and continue the conversations started throughout the day. It was a fitting end to a tour focused on connection.  Connection between members, between disciplines, between buildings and nature, and between rooftops and the communities they serve.

This wonderful event was was a reminder that the future of urban roofscapes is not only technical, but human. As cities continue to face challenges around climate resilience, biodiversity, health and wellbeing, rooftops have an increasingly important role to play.

Used well, they can help us create greener, healthier and more enjoyable places to live and work.