Park sights in London
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Battersea Park
With its Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth sculptures, these 50 hectares of gorgeous greenery stretch between Albert and Chelsea Bridges. The park’s tranquil appearance belies a bloody past: it was the site of an assassination attempt on King Charles II in 1671 and of a duel in 1829 between the Duke of Wellington and an opponent who accused him of treason. The Peace Pagoda, erected in 1985 by a group of Japanese Buddhists to commemorate Hiroshima Day, displays the Buddha in the four stages of his life.
Refurbishment has seen the 19th-century landscaping reinstated and the grand riverside terraces spruced up. At the same time, the Festival of Britain pleasure gardens,…
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Hyde Park
At 145 hectares, Hyde Park is central London's largest open space. Henry VIII expropriated it from the Church in 1536, when it became a hunting ground and later a venue for duels, executions and horse racing. The 1851 Great Exhibition was held here, and during WWII the park became an enormous potato field. These days, it serves as an occasional concert venue and a full-time green space for fun and frolics. There's boating on the Serpentine for the energetic, while Speaker's Corner is for oratorical acrobats. These days, it's largely nutters and religious fanatics who address the bemused stragglers at Speaker's Corner, maintaining the tradition begun in 1872 as a response…
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St James’s Park
This is one of the smallest but most gorgeous of London’s parks. It has brilliant views of the London Eye, Westminster, St James’s Palace, Carlton Terrace and Horse Guards Parade, and the view of Buckingham Palace from the footbridge spanning St James’s Park Lake is the best you’ll find. The central lake is full of different types of ducks, geese, swans and general fowl, and its southern side’s rocks serve as a rest stop for pelicans (fed at 2.30pm daily). Some of the technicolour flowerbeds were modelled on John Nash’s original ‘floriferous’ beds of mixed shrubs, flowers and trees. Spring and summer days see Londoners and tourists alike sunbathing, picnicking, admiring…
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Hampstead Heath
Sprawling Hampstead Heath, with its rolling woodlands and meadows, feels a million miles away – despite being approximately four – from the City of London. It covers 320 hectares, most of it woods, hills and meadows, and is home to about 180 bird species, 23 species of butterflies, grass snakes, bats and a rich array of flora. It's a wonder-ful place for a ramble, especially to the top of Parliament Hill, which offers expansive views across the city and is one of the most popular places in London to fly a kite. Alternatively head up the hill in North Wood or lose your-self in the West Heath.
If walking is too pedestrian for you, another major attraction is the bathing…
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Regent’s Park
The most elaborate and ordered of London’s many parks, this one was created around 1820 by John Nash, who planned to use it as an estate to build palaces for the aristocracy. Although the plan never quite came off – like so many at the time – you can get some idea of what Nash might have achieved from the buildings along the Outer Circle, and in particular from the stuccoed Palladian mansions he built on Cumberland Tce.
Like many of the city’s parks, this one was used as a royal hunting ground, and then as farmland, before becoming a place for fun and leisure during the 18th century. These days it’s well organised but relaxed, lively but serene, and a local but…
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Richmond Park
At 1012 hectares (the largest urban parkland in Europe), this park offers everything from formal gardens and ancient oaks to unsurpassed views of central London 12 miles away. It’s easy to escape the several roads that slice up the rambling wilderness, making the park excellent for a quiet walk or a picnic with the kids, even in summer when Richmond’s riverside can be heaving. Herds of more than 600 red and fallow deer basking under the trees are part of its magic, but they can be less than docile in rutting season (May to July) and when the does bear young (September and October). Birdwatchers will love the diverse habitats, from neat gardens to woodland and assorted…
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Kensington Gardens
Immediately west of Hyde Park and across the Serpentine lake, these gardens are technically part of Kensington Palace. If you have kids, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground, in the northwest corner of the gardens, has some pretty ambitious attractions for children. Next to the playground is the delightful Elfin Oak, an ancient tree stump carved with elves, gnomes, witches and small animals.
George Frampton’s celebrated Peter Pan statue is close to the lake. On the opposite side is a statue of Edward Jenner, who developed a vaccine for smallpox.
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Kennington Park
This unprepossessing space of green has a great rabble-rousing tradition. Originally a common, where all were permitted entry, it served as a speakers’ corner for South London. During the 18th century, Jacobite rebels trying to restore the Stuart monarchy were hanged, drawn and quartered here, and in the 18th and 19th centuries preachers used to deliver hellfire-and-brimstone speeches to large audiences; John Wesley, founder of Methodism and an antislavery advocate, is said to have attracted some 30,000 followers. After the great Chartist rally on 10 April 1848, where millions of working-class people turned out to demand the same voting rights as the middle classes, the…
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Victoria Park
The ‘Regent’s Park of the East End’, Victoria Park is an 86-hectare leafy expanse opened in 1845 – the first public park in the East End that came about after a local MP presented Queen Victoria with a petition of 30,000 signatures. In the early 20th century it was known as the Speaker’s Corner of the East End, and during WWII the park was largely closed to the public and was used as an anti-aircraft shelling site as well as an internment camp for Italian and then German prisoners of war. At the time of writing, the park was undergoing a £12-million revamp, which will improve both the lakes, introduce a skate park and create a hub building housing a cafe, community room…
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Mile End Park
The 36-hectare Mile End Park is a long, narrow series of interconnected green spaces wedged between Burdett and Grove Rds and Regent’s Canal. Landscaped to great effect during the millennium year, it incorporates a go-kart track, a children’s centre, areas for public art, an ecology area, an indoor climbing wall and a sports stadium. The centrepiece, though, is architect Piers Gough’s ‘green bridge’ linking the northern and southern sections of the park over busy Mile End Rd and planted with trees and shrubs.
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Green Park
Less manicured than the adjoining St James’s, beautiful Green Park has wonderful huge oaks and hilly meadows, and it’s never as crowded as St James’s. It was once a duelling ground and served as a vegetable garden during WWII.
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Bushy Park
Out in London’s southwestern outskirts, the wonderful Hampton Court Palace is pressed up against 445-hectare Bushy Park, a semiwild expanse with herds of red and fallow deer.
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London Fields
A strip of green amid a popular residential area of Hackney, London Fields was historically a place for the grazing of animals. A well-frequented public space at any time, it can be thronged with crowds on sunny weekend days as locals hang out after a meander up Broadway Market. Built in the 1930s, and abandoned by the ‘80s, London Fields Lido reopened to local delight in 2006. It gets packed with swimmers and sunbathers during the summer months. The park also has two children’s play areas and a decent pub.
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Dulwich Park
With its hectares of green space and much-loved bicycle hire putting fleets of novel, low-slung bikes under the feet of enthusiastic kids, Dulwich Park is one of London’s most handsome and enjoyable parks. To find one of those nifty bikes everyone seems to be riding, head to London Recumbents, near the Old College Gate in the west of the park, for your own set of head-turning wheels. The park playground is great for toddlers and sports enthusiasts. After exploring the park, exit onto College Rd by the Old College Gate in the west of the park for the Dulwich Picture Gallery and charming Dulwich Village.
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