London has more parkland than almost any other world capital. The Royal Parks belong to the monarch but are opened to the public during daylight hours. Besides these there are many smaller local parks, playgrounds and public gardens around London. The Royal Parks were first used as private royal hunting forests. When they were opened to the public they became fashionable areas to be seen. They were also popular places to hold duels at dawn.
Today the Parks are looked after by hundreds of workers, who tend the gardens and keep the parks clean daily. There are regular police patrols, too, and there is a special police station in the middle of Hyde Park. There is a variety of wildlife in all the Royal Parks, especially birdlife, which changes with the seasons. There are usually lots of different kinds of duck around the ponds and lakes, and you may see grey squirrels or hedgehogs.
Saint James's Park and Green Park St.
James's Park and Green Park lie close together, with Buckingham Palace between them. Alongside St. James's Park runs Pall Mall. Its name comes from an old French type of croquet called paille maille. Charles the Second used to have a paille maille alley nearby.
Park Sights
Saint James's Park is famous for the variety of ducks, geese and other birds, which live on its lake, including pelicans. On the north bank there are picture tiles to help you identify the different species. Some are very tame and will eat crumbs from your hand.
Beside Green Park, in Piccadilly, you can see a fardel rest, a high bench set into the pavement. It was made for Victorian porters to rest their bundles on.
Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens
Hyde Park was once part of a wild and ancient forest, in habited by wolves, wild bulls and boar. It was fenced off as a royal deer park in Tudor times, and later opened to the public. Kensington Gardens shares the Serpentine Lake with Hyde Park. The part in Kensington Gardens is called The Long Water.
Things to see and do
There is a tradition to swim in the Serpentine on Christmas Day, however icy the water. At other times you can hire rowing boats. The Round Pond in Kensington Gardens is good for sailing model boats. Apsley House. Hyde Park Corner is at the eastern entrance to Hyde Park. In the centre is a triumphal arch dedicated to the Duke of Wellington, who led the British at the Battle of Waterloo. Nearby is his old home, Apsley House, now a Wellington museum.
Peter Pan. By The Long Water there is a bronze statue of Peter Pan. Around its base are fairies, fieldmice and rabbits. In the Kensington playground there is an old treestump called the Elfin Oak, carved with elves and fairies climbing up it.
Kensington Palace Gardens.
Several members of today's royal family have apartments at Kensington Palace, in Kensington Gardens. You can walk around the Palace Gardens and visit the State Apartments. There is also an exhibition of uniforms and dresses once worn at Court.
Park Events
In November the London to Brighton Car Run starts from Hyde Park. On royal birthdays gun salutes are fired in Hyde Park. Every weekend afternoon you can listen to people making speeches at Speakers' Corner, in Hyde Park. Anyone has the right to speak here.
Regent's Park
Regent's Park was originally a royal hunting forest. It was landscapes by John Nash in the 1820s for the Prince Regent (later George the Fourth). He surrounded it with elegant terraced houses, which you can still see today. The Park is the home of London Zoo.
Around the Park.
Inside the Park's Inner Circle is the Queen Mary Rose Garden, full of carefully-tended flower borders and wall roses. Near Regent's Park is Primrose Hill, once a thieves' hideout. From the top there is a good view of London. In summer plays are staged at the open-air theatre in the park, and brass bands sometimes play on the bandstand. You can hire boats on the lake in the Park. On one of its islands there is a heronry, where herons live and breed. In the early 1800s canals were built to link the London docks with
other parts of the country. Regent's Canal is one of these. It runs through part of Regent's Park, and has been restored so you can walk along it and take narrow-boat trips between Camden Lock and Little Venice. At Camden Lock there are working lock gates and craft work shops in old canal-side warehouses. Every May there is a canal procession of decorated barges. The best place to see it is at Little Venice.
London Zoo
London Zoo was opened in 1827 by the Zoological Society of London. The first enclosures were built to reflect the places the animals came from. African animals were kept in grass huts and goats lived in a Swiss-style chalet, for instance.
Today there are more than 8000 animals in the Zoo. Some are very rare, such as the giant Panda, so are encouraged to breed and are studied by conservationists. Many of the animals were born in the Zoo, or in other zoos around the world. You can adopt an animal at London Zoo for a year. The cost depends on the animal you choose, and is based on the amount of food it eats in a year. Your name goes on a plaque near the animal's cage.
The elephants and rhinos have the biggest appetite in the Zoo. An elephant's daily diet consists of hay, grass pellets, linseed cake, cabbage, carrots, apples, potatoes, dates, bread, salt, vitamins and minerals, washed down with 100 litres of water.
Zoo Sights
You can walk through the Snowdon Aviary, where about 150 different species of bird live. They have lots of room to fly freely around inside, and there are cliff-faces, water, trees and bushes to simulate different kinds of bird habitat.
In the Moonlight World you can see nocturnal creatures, who sleepduring daylight hours and wake up when it is dark. In this building day and night are reversed by artificial light, so that visitors can see the animals awake in the daytime. In the Children's Zoo there are all kinds of pets and farm animals, too, such as sheep, miniature pigs and cows. At 3 o'clock each afternoon you can see the cows being milked. The milk is used to feed some of the other Zoo animals.
In summer a baby elephant walks round the Zoo with its keeper, and you can also see the "elephant's workout" at the Elephant House. One of the baby elephants goes some of its training exercises, and you can help to we
ight it. Every day you can watch animals being fed, for instance penguins, snakes, lions and seals. Around the Zoo there are trays of exhibits you can touch, for instance, you might be able to handle a crocodile skin or a snake skeleton.
In summer you can have a ride on a pony, donkey or camel, or in a cart pulled by a South American llama. You can meet some of the small animals and their keepers in a summer afternoon show in the Zoo's Hummingbird Amphitheatre.
More London Parks and Open Spaces
There are lots of other parks and open spaces around London. Many of them have sports areas and playgrounds, and hold annual fairs and festivals. A few are listed below.
Alexandra Park: Lake, padding pool, adventure playground and animal enclosure.
Battersea Park: Play area and pets' corner. Lots of events, including Easter and May Day celebrations with carnival processions.
Blackheath: A fair in summer and a kite display every Easter.
Clapham Common: Ponds, a playground and a bandstand. The Greater London Horse Show is held every August, with all kind of horse events and traditional craft displays.
Crystal Palace Park: A boating lake, summer children's zoo, Sunday concerts and giant models of dinosaurs.
Hampstead Heath: A huge heath with ponds, some for swimming. A big funfair held every summer.
Holland Park: Set in the grounds of a historic house, with an open-air theatre and a playpark.
Wimbledon Common: Large heath, with a pond, ancient earthworks and a windmill.
City farms: There are several around London, set up to show people how a farm runs. You can visit them to see the animals, and sometimes help in the farm work.