The Barbican Conservatory will give away its plants for the last time on 2 December, before the glasshouse closes for a three-year restoration. Seven hundred free tickets for the final plant adoption are being handed out by ballot, which closes on 19 November.

The conservatory, a tropical garden inside the Barbican's concrete frame, is one of London's most unusual green spaces, home to exotic plants, koi carp and a quiet that feels far from the City streets outside. Its closure in early 2027 will allow a major restoration of the structure, with the space due to reopen in 2030.

The final adoption is a chance for Londoners to take a piece of the conservatory home, with cuttings and plants given away to ballot winners. The event has become a ritual for the conservatory's regulars, who have watched the plants grow over years of visits and now face a long wait before they can return.

The restoration is part of the wider renewal of the Barbican, and the three-year closure will be felt by the many people who use the conservatory as a place of calm in the middle of the city. The December giveaway is both a farewell and a promise, a way of keeping the plants alive in homes across London until the glasshouse reopens. The conservatory opened with the Barbican in the early 1980s and has become one of its most loved spaces, a glasshouse of tropical plants in the middle of the City. Its restoration will repair the structure and improve the environment for the plants, which will be cared for off site while the work goes on.