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The Roof Gardens (formerly known as Derry and Toms Roof Gardens and Kensington Roof Gardens) is a roof garden covering 6,000 m2 (1.5 acres) on top of the former Derry and Toms building on Kensington High Street, in central London, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. They have for a long time been the largest roof garden in Europe, but was surpassed by the roof garden on the shopping mall Emporia in 2012. Facilities include a restaurant and club. The gardens are not visible from Kensington High Street; however, the property can be identified by the Virgin flags flying from the top of the building. The gardens are open to the public unless pre-booked by a private party. They are accessible from Derry Street, through a doorway marked "99 Kensington High Street". The nearest tube station is High Street Kensington. ==History== Derry and Toms department store was opened in Kensington in 1933. The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a landscape architect, on the instructions of Trevor Bowen (then vice-president of Barkers, the department store giant that owned the site and constructed the building).〔(About Us ), The Roof Gardens website. Retrieved 2011-11-29.〕 They cost £25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter. Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £120,000 was raised during the next 30 years.〔(Ralph Hancock F.R.H.S. – Landscape Artist - Derry and Toms roof garden ), Parks & Gardens UK. Retrieved 2011-11-29.〕 The gardens were used as the set for the BBC music video of Roy Orbison singing his number one single, "Oh, Pretty Woman" in 1964 on Top of the Pops when Orbison could not make it in time to the television studios in Manchester. The building housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975. The Gardens has been listed as a Grade II site by the English Heritage in 1978. The Roof Gardens have been rented from their owners by Sir Richard Branson since 1981, and are part of Virgin Limited Edition - the luxury portfolio of Virgin Hotels Group Ltd. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kensington Roof Gardens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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