London Parks - Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens part 1

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens were originally part of one park and at 625 acres combined are one of the largest green spaces in central London. They’re located in between the most fashionable and wealthiest parts of the city, with the eastern side bordered by Park Lane and Mayfair, the south by Knightsbridge and the north and west by Bayswater, Notting Hill and Kensington.

Henry VIII seized the land from the church in 1536 to use as a royal park for deer hunting but he kept it for his private use and it wasn’t until 1637 that Charles 1 opened the park for public use.
In 1690 William III created the first road in England to be lit at night when he had 300 oil lamps installed on Rotten Row to make his journey between Kensington and St James’s Palace’s safer.

One of the major landscaping changes to the park took place in 1730 when George II’s wife, Queen Caroline, had the flow of the Westbourne River dammed to create The Serpentine, an 11.3 hectare lake that curve’s through the parks, separating the two.

Hyde Park has always been a place used for major events in London. In its early days duels were fought and horseracing took place there, it was the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and in the last hundred years it’s been used for concerts and political demonstrations. The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and Queen all played major gigs in the park in the 60’s and 70’s and recently it staged Live 8 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers while hundreds of thousands turned up for a Stop the War march in 2003.

Today Hyde Park consists of a mixture of tree lined walks, open grass or mixed wooded areas, paths set aside for cycling, roller blading and running, bridle ways for horse riding and the Serpentine lake.
If you approach the park from Hyde Park Corner you can go through the Grand Entrance, built in the 1820’s, a long columned entrance with three carriage and two walking gates. Once inside the park you’ll be at the area where Carriage Drive, Rotten Row, Serpentine Road and Broad Walk converge.

Walking north from here there’s a large statue of a warrior, dedicated to the Duke of Wellington, on the right hand side then Broad Walk leads off in the direction of Marble Arch and Speaker’s Corner. Along this eastern side of the park paths criss-cross each other and there are a lot of mature tree’s providing shade. At the top right hand corner of Hyde Park is Speaker’s Corner where under a law of 1872 it is legal to gather a crowd and address them on any subject without any legal repercussions. The only two subjects not allowed are the Royal Family and overthrowing the state.

In its time Marx, Lenin and George Orwell among others have been down to Speaker’s Corner, get along on Sunday’s to hear people get off their chest’s what ever’s bothering them.

Looking out on the park from the Marble Arch side the trees give way to a large expanse of open grass and paths, although some young trees have been planted.

If you walk west from the Hyde Park Corner entrance along Serpentine Road you’ll pass the bandstand on the right and some garden’s on your left where winter planting was taking place this week. This is really one of the few parts of Hyde Park with some formal planting.

A little further on and you’ll reach the Serpentine, a pancake flat expanse of water that looks fairly shallow from the edge but is deep enough for pleasure boating. In the eastern corner of the Serpentine is a restaurant called the Dell with an interesting batwing shaped roof and high glass walls. There’s plenty of seating on an outside terrace in front and there’s a large area on its left with wooden tables and benches providing a good view of the lake. The Dell is open 9am-8pm in summer and 10am-4pm in winter and they do sell alcohol.

The Serpentine seems very calm, the ideal place to get in a boat and go for a row on the water
and a few hundred yards along the lakeside from the Dell is a boathouse where you can rent out rowing boats, pedal boats or take a ride on a solar powered glass boat.

Prices for rowing and pedal boats are £4 per half hour/£6 per hour for adults, £1.50 per half hour for kids or £9.99 for two adults and two kids for 30 minutes, £14.99 for an hour, life jackets are provided. Rowing lessons are available if you need them.

The SolarShuttle is a pontoon like boat with a curved roof made of 27 glass mudules that collect the sun’s enegry and power the boat. It takes up to 40 people on a winding tour of the lake starting at the boathouse and finishing at the Lido on the other side. Tickets cost £3 for adults and £1.50 for children and it runs from 10am-6pm in summer and 10am-5pm in winter.

The area around the lakeside has fairly wide paths and along with all the other trails through the park this is a particularly popular place for joggers especially at lunchtimes during the working week and you’ll see hundreds of runners working up a good sweat during their lunch breaks.
Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens together are a runners paradise, lots of routes, spacious paths, a flatish terrain that has enough inclines to make you work, lots of shade in summer and cafe’s and refreshment stands around the park if you need to get a drink, plus the scenery is very nice.

The Serpentine attracts a lot of bird life and you’ll see ducks, swans, greyleg and Canada geese, cormorants, heron’s and gulls among other’s around the edge’s of the lake.
The birds and water fowl in the park are obviously getting well fed by visitors, they’re so used to people that you almost tread on some of before they’ll move out of your path.
There are enough sheltered parts around the lake to provide a breeding area for the birds, similar to St James’s Park.

On the 10 November park staff are conducting a guided walk of the park called Autumn in Hyde Park looking at how autumn effects the animals and plants, its from 1-2.30pm and places need to be booked in advance by contacting the address on their website.

By Chris | Permalink

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