The Gardens sit at the northern end of the Warehouse Precinct, and lie some 200 metres to the east of The Exchange, the city's former commercial hub on Princes Street.
The gardens are dominated, however, by the city's main war memorial, the 28-metre (92 ft) tall eight-sided column of Dunedin Cenotaph, built between 1924 and 1927.
The gardens' location close to The Exchange means that it is surrounded by many notable buildings, many of them the legacy of the city's prosperity during the Central Otago gold rush of the 1860s.
The First Church of Otago sits atop a rocky outcrop (the remains of Bell Hill) overlooking the northern end of the gardens.
[4][5] Dunedin's historic railway station, internationally regarded as a major architectural landmark[6][7] stands within sight of the gardens some 350 metres to the northeast.