InfoBritain

 

Hyde Park

The Serpentine

Slowly, as the world became more industrialised through the eighteenth century, tastes in garden design turned towards the natural. It's as if there was a desire to recreate an idealised countryside, a rural world which was being lost. In many ways the qualities of this rural life were an illusion, but the sense of recreating a lost Eden was still strong. Today there is a growing popular sense of industrialisation as some kind of fall, and places like Hyde Park continue in the role of a symbolic lost paradise.

Hyde Park began life as yet another deer park for Henry the Eighth, who seized an attractive area of land around the Westbourne Stream from the monks of Westminster Abbey in 1536 during the Reformation. To create drinking ponds for deer he dammed the Westbourne Stream, and began the process that would eventually create the Serpentine. The appearance of the deer park remained much the same until Charles the First created a circular ring road in the park, on which members of the royal court could ride in their carriages. In 1637 Charles opened the park to the public, and with its royal connection it was fashionable to be seen there. As a very early tourist destination Hyde Park was a sign of things to come.

With the coming of the Civil War in the 1640s and the eventual execution of Charles the First, the puritans came to power. They had no time for people enjoying themselves, and Hyde Park became a place of fortification. Earth works were built in the park to defend Westminster from Royalist attack. The raised bank running along Park Lane is the remains of these defensive works.

When Charles the Second was restored to the throne in 1660, Hyde Park returned to its former role as a pleasure ground. After Charles the Second's death the Glorious Revolution put the park much more at the centre of the royal stage. The new king and queen, William and Mary, purchased a grand property called Nottingham House on the eastern edge of the park, renaming it Kensington Palace. A route from Kensington Palace to Westminster was then created, lit by oil lamps. This was the first illuminated road in Britain, and was originally called Route De Roi, or the Road of the King. Over the centuries the name Route De Roi was corrupted, and is now, ironically, Rotten Row.

Kensington Gardens

Then in the eighteenth century Hyde Park became one of the earliest forms of those idealised rural havens that were to become so popular in the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Caroline, queen to George the Second , was an enthusiastic gardener. In 1728 she created Kensington Gardens in the eastern end of Hyde Park near the palace, and extended Henry the Eighth's damming of the Westbourne Stream. This resulted in the Serpentine. The unusual thing about Charlotte's work was the naturalness of her design. Artificial lakes until this time were usually regular, elongated rectangles. A lake of this type existed in St James's Park until the nineteenth century. The Serpentine is one of the first artificial lakes in Britain designed to look like a real lake. When the time came in the nineteenth century for the royal parks of London to have their naturalistic makeovers, Hyde Park was well ahead of the game. Decimus Burton's redesign of 1820 mainly involved building a monumental entrance, and a bridge over the Serpentine, which formally divided Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park.

 

 

Diana Memorial Fountain

Hyde Park has remained much the same since then. Some of the most significant national celebrations have taken place here. In 1851 the Crystal Palace was built for the Great Exhibition, which celebrated the Empire. In 1969 the Rolling Stones were celebrating peace and love in the park. Princess Diana is remembered with the rather lovely Diana Memorial Fountain. Hyde Park remains an idealisation of a better world.

The park has a wide range of refreshment facilities, ranging from ice cream kiosks, to restaurants. The Lido has lovely views of the Serpentine. There is a children's playground, and deckchair hire May to September.

Opening Times: 5am to midnight all the year round.

Directions: Hyde Park is in west London, bordering Westminster and Kensington. Nearest Underground stations are: Lancaster Gate, Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner, and Knightsbridge. Click here for an interactive map centred on Hyde Park.

 

Access: The park is generally flat, and has many well maintained paths. There is a half hourly electric buggy service with wheelchair access, which offers tours of the park. Contact: 07767 498 096. Adapted toilet facilities are available.

Contact: The Park Office

phone: 020 7298 2100

web site: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde_park/