London

When I was a 16, many years ago, I went to six form college just off High Street Kensington, and I lived in a youth hostel, just off Notting Hill Gate. To get to college from the hostel, I had the choice between taking a bus, the underground or walking. Having tested all three possibilities, I soon abandoned the first two for the third. It was actually faster to cross Kensington gardens than to take (and especially, to wait for) public transport, not to mention the visual appeal difference. With my walk-man on my ears, (Burning Spear or other ragga or punk sounds at that time) going to college was rather pleasant, thanks to the stroll across the end bit of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens.


There is no real separation between the two, Kensington Gardens becomes Hyde Park by passing the Serpentine, (an 11 hectare huge lake, created in 1730, and where people rent boats on a Sunday afternoon to relax), and the West Carriage Drive, or the Ring, as it is commonly known. Hyde Park was originally, in 1536, a closed deer park, used for hunting when Henry VIII acquired the manor of Hyde. It was only in 1637 that Charles I opened the park to the public. In 1689, William III made of Nottingham house, his official home, Kensington Palace, which later became the birth place of Queen Victoria and Queen Mary (the actual queens grand mother). When I was a teenager, it was the home of Lady Di, and I often saw helicopters land and take off from the Palace gardens with members and guards of the royal family. This is apparently one of the few changes in the last 20 years, now, a monument to Lady Di stands in Hyde Park, just south of the Serpentine.


A year later, I moved to the Marble Arch area, and although from there, the walk to college, off High Street Ken. through the park was a very long one, (4km), I'd sometimes do it, just for the pleasure to get out of the polluted city. Near the Marble Arch entrance to Hyde Park, there is the famous "Speakers corner", where whoever feels up to it can just stand up and preach what he/she feels. Now this can get funny, or, on the contrary, dodgy. Whilst police are normally quite tolerant, they do interrupt obscene language, unlawful topics, or manifestations. Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin or George Orwell are just a few famous past speakers of Speakers Corner, Hyde Park.


The park consists of open areas of lawn with forest sections as well as cultivated and elaborated gardens. It covers, in all, 142 hectares with over 4,000 trees. The most common activities within the park are walking, dog walking, roller skating, pigeon/duck feeding, rowing, horse riding, playgrounds, cycling, students revising, homeless people sleeping on the benches etc. Occasionally a concert is given in the park, and the lakes (there is also a second small lake called the Round Pond) attract wildfowl whom are protected from country side hunters.


To get to Hyde Park there are many entrances. It is situated in the very heart of London, with directly around it some grand monuments such as the Royal Albert Hall (and Albert Memorial), Crystal Palace, Kensington Palace, The Lanesborough (one of London's most expensive hotels), Marble Arch (which is the beginning of Oxford Street), and the Knightsbridge area, home to Harrods, of course. If you want to take the Underground there, you have a choice between Notting Hill Gate, High Street Kensington, Queensway, Lancaster Gardens, Marble Arch or Knightsbridge. I won't even try to enumerate all the bus stops!


In the park, the Serpentine Lido has a pool, a bar and restaurant, there is a tennis club, a horse riding arena, putting and bowls hire, otherwise informally, there are often football, touch rugby, cricket, softball, rounders and Frisbee matches. So if you're in London and in need of peace and quite, away from the city rat-race, head to Hyde Park, it's like an oasis in the desert!