Fiona MacLeod on when to go, where to go, and what the parks offer each time of year
LONDON, UK – London has more parkland per capita than almost any major city in the world, a fact that surprises visitors who arrive expecting the grey density of the financial district. Fiona MacLeod covers London travel for Bohiney Magazine and for The London Prat, and this is her season-by-season guide to making the most of what the city offers outdoors.
The Royal Parks
The eight Royal Parks, managed by the Royal Parks charity and free to enter, include Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, Green Park, St James’s Park, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park, Bushy Park, and Kensington Gardens. Together they cover approximately 5,000 acres and provide the green backbone of the city’s public space. St James’s Park, adjacent to Buckingham Palace, is the most central and has pelicans, first gifted to the park in 1664 by the Russian ambassador and present ever since. Hyde Park is the largest in Central London, contains the Serpentine gallery and the Serpentine lake, and is where you go when you need significant space to feel temporary. Regent’s Park contains the Open Air Theatre, which has a season running through summer, and the formal garden around Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, which is at its best in June. Booking information for the Open Air Theatre is at openairtheatre.com.
Richmond Park and the Deer
Richmond Park, further from the centre, is in a different category: 2,500 acres of genuine parkland with wild deer, ancient oaks, and views across to the North Downs. It requires commitment to reach from Central London but rewards that commitment substantially. The deer are neither tame nor safe and should be observed from a distance, particularly during the rut in October. The Isabella Plantation within the park is a planted woodland garden whose azaleas and rhododendrons in spring are among the best seasonal displays in London. It is best visited on a weekday: the weekend crowds at this specific season can be significant. The park’s practical information is at royalparks.org.uk.
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is the park that Londoners themselves most consistently cite as the best in the city. It is 790 acres of natural heath, woodland, meadow, and swimming ponds at the top of a hill that provides the best unobstructed views of the London skyline from the north. The Parliament Hill viewpoint is the specific location for this view. The bathing ponds, open to swimmers year-round, are separated by gender and mixed use: the Ladies’ Pond, the Men’s Pond, and the Mixed Pond. They are managed by the City of London Corporation, which maintains an information page for visitors. The Heath is at its best in late spring when the trees are in new leaf and in early autumn when they are beginning to turn. It is also excellent in February, when it is mostly empty and the light through the bare trees is the most London thing you will see all year. For London green space information, see Visit London.
The secret of the London parks, which Fiona MacLeod shares with every visitor who asks her for a tip, is that they are connected. You can walk from St James’s Park through Green Park through Hyde Park through Kensington Gardens without crossing a major road, covering two and a half miles of continuous parkland in the heart of Central London. This walk is best done in the early morning, when the city has not yet claimed the parks for the day, or in the late afternoon when the light comes at an angle through the plane trees and produces the version of London that makes people understand why anyone would choose to live here despite everything else the previous sections of this guide have described. The parks are the city’s best argument for itself. They are free, they are beautiful, they are in the middle of everything, and they connect in a way that the Tube, for all its virtues, does not. Walk them. For London park information, see Royal Parks.
The Parks in Each Season
Spring in the parks means the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park for azaleas in April and May, the Rose Garden in Regent’s Park in June, and the bluebells in the woodland areas of Hampstead Heath in late April. Summer means the Serpentine outdoor swimming lido in Hyde Park, the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, and the specific pleasure of Hampstead Heath on a Sunday afternoon when half of North London has the same idea. Autumn means the colour in the tree lines of Hyde Park and St James’s Park, which is best in late October, and the deer rut in Richmond Park, which is spectacular and genuinely alarming at close range and should be watched from the safety of a car or at a respectful distance on foot. Winter means the parks emptied of their summer crowds and returned to their most honest state: cold, quiet, and beautiful in the specific way that bare trees and still water and winter light are beautiful, which is the way that Fiona MacLeod finds most convincing and most worth visiting.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
