Hyde Park

London’s largest royal park spreads itself over a whopping 142 hectares of neatly manicured gardens and wild, deserted expanses of overgrown grass. Spring prompts the gorgeous Rose Gardens, added in 1994, into vivacious bloom, and summers are full of sunbathers, picnickers, frisbee-throwers and general London populace who drape themselves across the green. It is also a magnificent backdrop for open-air concerts, demonstrations and royal occasions. Gun salutes are fired here and soldiers ride through the park each morning on their way to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall. Hyde Park is separated from Kensington Gardens by the L-shaped Serpentine, a small lake created by the damming of the Westbourne River in the 1730s; it’s a good spot for pleasure boating in summer. Henry VIII expropriated the park from the Church in 1536, after which it became a hunting ground for kings and aristocrats; later it became a popular venue for duels, executions and horse racing. It became the first royal park to open to the public in the early 17th century, and famously hosted the Great Exhibition in 1851. During WWII it became an enormous potato bed. You’ll either love or hate the ornate Queen Elizabeth Gate designed by Giuseppe Lund and David Wynne in 1993 to honour the late Queen Mother, which leads onto Park Lane near Hyde Park Corner. West of the gate is the Holocaust Memorial Garden (1983), a simple stone marker in a grove of trees with a quote from Lamentations: ‘For thee I weep, streams of tears flow from my eyes because of the destruction of my people.’ North of the gate is the new 7 July Memorial of 52 square stainless-steel pillars dedicated to the victims of the terrorist bombings in London in July 2005.