Royal Parks (London)

...stroll through four of London’s Royal Parks, and would take a couple of hours if you dawdle.

Firstly, choose a fine sunny day to enjoy this at its best. Take a tube to high Street Kensington ( District and Circle line) and find somewhere to eat and drink. This won’t be difficult because there are many sandwich bars or fast food outlets in the area. If you like high quality burgers or other American style, why not treat ...
...reach the first of the Royal Parks you’re going to visit today. The basic idea of this walk is to head east all the time, and although you can divert off to explore the parks, I’m going to describe the most straightforward route. So, once you’re in Kensington Gardens just carry on walking parallel to Knightsbridge and eventually it will bring you out at Marble Arch.

Kensington Gardens is a lovely park and has many ... more

Visitors to London just tend to home in on specific sites (such as Buckingham Palace or the Tower), while those who live in or around the city, rarely get to actually see beyond Oxford Street or the West End. Its all too easy to go to London for a film or a show, or to visit an exhibition and to forget how much else there is to see there.

I’d like to describe in this opinion an afternoon I recently had in London which shows the sort of thing that’s so easily available in the city and costs you only the price of your food and drink. It involves a stroll through four of London’s Royal Parks, and would take a couple of hours if you dawdle.

Firstly, choose a fine sunny day to enjoy this at its best. Take a tube to high Street Kensington ( District and Circle line) and find somewhere to eat and drink. This won’t be difficult because there are many sandwich bars or fast food outlets in the area. If you like high quality burgers or other American style, why not treat yourself and eat at Bill Wyman’s Sticky Fingers' Café just off the High Street at 1a Phillimore Gardens. If you don’t want to queue you’ll have to book, but when I went I only had to wait ten minutes. The service is really great, and the food delicious. They serve nice cold beer too.

When you’ve eaten, walk east along Kensington High Street until you reach the first of the Royal Parks you’re going to visit today. The basic idea of this walk is to head east all the time, and although you can divert off to explore the parks, I’m going to describe the most straightforward route. So, once you’re in Kensington Gardens just carry on walking parallel to Knightsbridge and eventually it will bring you out at Marble Arch.

Kensington Gardens is a lovely park and has many well-known “sights” in it, not least being the Princess Diana memorial adventure playground. $2 million adventure playground. This contains a magnificent Pirate Ship, a huge play model of ship with mast, sails and rigging and 6 different interest areas including a wigwam village with totem pole.

You could also detour to look at the Peter Pan Statue which is often called the most beautiful of all the statues in London, based on J.M. Barrie's character Peter Pan. Other sites in the park are the Round Pond which is used by model boat enthusiasts to show off their latest designs. And also The Orangery, built by Queen Anne so she could hold summer parties and take tea with invited guests.

Kensington Gardens leads into Hyde Park, a vast expanse of space popular for large events and concerts. Keep on the south side however, passing the newly restored Prince Albert Memorial. If you need a loo-break, the Serpentine Gallery (which you can easily spot from the path) has high quality free toilets.

Eventually you’ll leave the park and reach Marble Arch. Here, you cross right over to the other side of this huge roundabout (best to use the subway) and enter Green Park. This park is more rural than the other two we’ll be visiting today and has more open space than the others. While it’s a nice park to walk round, I suggest you just walk down Constitution Hill on the south side of the park, towards Buckingham Palace. Constitution Hill is so named because King Charles II would take frequent constitutionals among his subjects on this ground, usually with his pet dogs, King Charles Spaniels. It’s a lovely wide walk now, and horse riders also use.

Personally I’ve seen enough of Buckingham Palace, but if its new to you, then when you reach the end of Constitution Hill its worth crossing over and milling with the crowds of tourists looking at the long-suffering guards and trying to catch a glimpse of the Queen (unlikely as she lives at the back of the palace).

Cross right over in front of the Palace and enter St James Park, probably the most beautiful of all the Royal Parks and more “landscaped” than the others being entirely redesigned in its current romantic, informal style in the 19th Century by John Nash. As you walk around or through the park, take a look at the views you see – the park is surrounded by stately buildings and royal palaces and you can now see the London Eye beyond Horse Guards Parade.

One of the favourite parts of the park is the lake., particularly at the far (east) end, where countless varieties of ornamental ducks gather to be fed. There are display boards there too which help you identify all the different species. Look out for the pelicans on the island too.

Near here there’s a good café with benches outside and plenty of space to sit under huge trees. Toilets here too, just round the corner and well sign-posted.

One side of the park is bounded by Birdcage Walk. Charles II was fond of exotic animals and birds and he used to keep a long row of aviaries here. On the other side of the Park is The Mall, a wide road, used for state processions and leading up to Buckingham Palace. It contains Clarence House, the home of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and St. James's Palace where several members of the Royal Family still live. At the end of The Mall is the huge Admiralty Arch, beyond which is Trafalgar Square.

Leave St James Park near Horse Guard's Parade, London's largest single open space, and go through the arch on the other side where you can walk through the area where the guards are changed every hour on the striking of the clock. When you come out the other side you will find yourself in Whitehall, so to complete the walk either cross over and head down to the Thames Embankment or go up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square where you can have a coffee on the top floor of the large Waterstones, or find plenty of other places to eat and drink.

 

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