London Parks - Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens part 2

The bridge that crosses the Serpentine was built in the 1820s by John Rennie and marks the point where Kensington Gardens begins the stretch of water on the western side of the bridge is known as Long Water.The bridge allows a road called West Carriage Drive to go from the north side of the park near Lancaster Gate to the south coming out on Kensington Gore.

On the other side of the lake to the boathouse is the Serpentine Lido, a roped off area for outdoor swimming with changing facilities. Its open to the public daily from June-September. The Lido Cafe is a long single storey building with a clock tower that is open from 9am-9pm in the summer, 10am-4pm in the winter. They have outdoor seating and they serve alcohol.

A short walk from the Lido Cafe is the Princess Diana Memorial which was opened by the Queen in 2004. Its a long, flat circular water fountain set on a gentle slope and the water flows in two directions down hill before meeting in a pool at the bottom.

It’s made from 545 pieces of Cornish granite and you’re allowed to sit on it or paddle your feet in the water. I have to say seeing it for the first time its pretty uninspiring, it’s flatness and the fact there’s just grass in the middle means it doesn’t grab your attention.
It needs some mature trees in the centre area to set it off and make you want to walk around the back to see what’s there. They spent a lot of money designing and building this fountain but for me it doesn’t work.

It’s open from 10am to around dusk nearly all year, there’s a regular maintenance programme and in 2006 that’s from October 30 to November 14.

If you walk west from the Diana Memorial and across West Carriage Drive into Kensington Gardens you will pass on the left the Serpentine Gallery, a 1934 tea pavillion that was opened in 1970 as a gallery for modern and contemporary art. Its open daily from 10am-6pm and admission is free.

Kensington Gardens is similar to the Hyde Park side with its long, straight, criss-crossing paths with avenues of tall shady trees. At its western side towards Kensington Palace is a circular pond called the Round Pond, dug in the 18th century. There’s no boating on this pond unless its the model boat variety and the area is quite open and featureless.

Walking across Kensington Gardens from the Round Pond towards Lancaster Gate you’ll see a tall obelisk made from red Scottish granite, first erected in 1866 in honour of the explorer John Hanning Speke who died aged 37 two years before.
Speke along with Sir Richard Burton were the first Europeans to find Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. Speke also found and christened Lake Victoria after being told about it by locals and controversially claimed to have found the source of the Nile. It was, but Speke hadn’t traced it the whole way and was guessing.

A little way form the Speke obelisk, next to Long Water is a small statue that Kensington Gardens is well known for, a bronze of novelist JM Barrie’s character Peter Pan standing on a pedestal.

In 1906 the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was published. Scenes from the 2004 film Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp were also filmed in Kensington Gardens.

Continue down the lakeside and you’ll come to the Italian Fountains, commissioned by Queen Victoria, four large ponds, two abreast with a fifth smaller pond in the middle each with a fountain. At one end is a pavilion with three arches on each side and a square tower about 20ft on its roof. At the other end of this railed water garden, water comes from spouts in the wall into the Serpentine.

Kensington Gardens are open from 6am-dusk year round and Hyde Park is open from 5am-midnight year round. Both offer free walking tours throughout the year, upcoming for Kensington Gardens are 19th Century Pioneers on the 23 November, explaining the lives of people who have statues and memorials in the park and on the 14 December Christmas Through The Ages.

Hyde Park has Cancer Research UK - Stride for Life on 29 October a sponsored 5km walk for cancer research, Autumn in Hyde Park on 10 November, Christmas Through The Ages on 8 December and London’s Fair from 21 December-7 January.