Hyde Park, London

Hyde Park, together with Kensington Gardens, which adjoin it on the west, forms the largest open space in London, extending for 2km/1.25mi from east to west and 1km/0.5mi from north to south. Originally belonging to Westminster Abbey, it was taken over by Henry VIII in 1536 and became a royal deer park. Charles I threw it open to the public in 1635. In 1730 Queen Caroline, George II's wife, laid out the Serpentine, an artificial lake which now offers Londoners facilities for rowing, sailing, swimming or merely watching the birds.

Picture - Hyde Park's Italian Gardens in London.

Picture - Arches of a stone bridge in Hyde Park, London.

Picture - Lawn chairs in in Hyde Park, London.

Picture - Hyde Park gates near Albert Memorial, London.

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Hyde Park Map

Important Information:

Entrance fee: FREE

Facilities: Restaurant or food service

Transit: Underground: Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Lancaster Gate.

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To the north of the Serpentine is a bird sanctuary, with Epstein's figure of "Rima", the bird-girl heroine of W. H. Hudson's novel, "Green Mansions". On the south side are a restaurant and bathing facility. The main entrance to the park, at Hyde Park Corner, is a triple archway by Decimus Burton (1828), with a reproduction of the Parthenon frieze. Near this is a statue of Achilles (by Westmacott, 1822) cast from captured French cannon, erected in honor of the Duke of Wellington. The statue is copied from a figure on the Quirinal in Rome. Nearby is a bandstand, where bands play on Sunday in summer. From Hyde Park Corner three roads run through the park. The Carriage Road, to the left, leads to the Albert Memorial; the East Carriage Road, to the right, leads to Marble Arch and Speakers' Corner; and the one in the middle runs west to the Serpentine. Between them is Rotten Row (probably a corruption of the French "Route du Roi"), a horse-riding track almost 2km/1mi long.

Related Attractions

Speakers' Corner

Opposite Marble Arch is Speakers' Corner, a traditional forum of free speech where anyone with a grievance or a mission can find an audience. Speakers' Corner is particularly busy on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons, when numbers of soapbox orators address large groups of listeners or a few indifferent bystanders with equal eloquence. The speakers' themes are usually religious or political, and they are frequently exposed to lively heckling. Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya, spoke here in his younger days, and Idi Amin, later notorious as Dictator of Uganda, was often a member of the crowd when he was an NCO in the British army.

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Hyde Park Riding Stables

For the past 300 years, the stables have been England's most famous equestrian center. Located at Bathurst Mews, close to Victoria Gate, they offer 5.5mi rides through bridleway and around Serpentine Lake. Lessons are also available.

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