JUNE 18, 2017: Visitors seated on the shore of Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park.

©Tim M/Shutterstock

Hyde Park

Top choice in Kensington & Hyde Park


One of London’s best parks, Hyde Park spreads itself over 142 hectares of neat gardens, wild expanses of overgrown grass and glorious trees. As well as being a fantastic green space in the middle of the city, it's home to a handful of fascinating sights, and hosts live concerts and events through the year.

The eastern half of the park is covered with expansive lawns, which become one vast picnic-and-frolic area on sunny days. The western half is more untamed, with plenty of trees and areas of wild grass. If you're after somewhere more colorful (and some shade), head to the Rose Garden, a beautifully landscaped area with flowers year-round. A little further west, you'll find the Holocaust Memorial Garden, a simple stone marker in a grove of trees. You won't want to miss the Serpentine or the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain either.

Once you've found the perfect spot in the park, hire a deck chair (one/four hours £1.80/4.80, all day £9). They are available throughout the park from March to October, weather permitting.

Aerial shot of a large park dominated by a central L-shaped lake
Hyde Park is central London's largest green space © Andrew Holt / Getty Images

The Serpentine

Hyde Park is separated from Kensington Gardens by the L-shaped Serpentine, a small lake once fed by waters from the River Westbourne. Between June and September you can swim at the Serpentine Lido, where a swimming area within the lake is ring-fenced. There is also a paddling pool for children. If you'd rather stay dry, rent a paddle boat from the Serpentine Boathouse.

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain

This memorial fountain is dedicated to the late Princess of Wales. Envisaged by the designer Kathryn Gustafson as a "moat without a castle" and draped "like a necklace" around the southwestern edge of Hyde Park near the Serpentine Bridge, the circular double stream is composed of 545 pieces of Cornish granite, its waters drawn from a chalk aquifer more than 100m below ground. Unusually, visitors are actively encouraged to splash about, to the delight of children.

The Serpentine SolarShuttle Boat ferries passengers from the Serpentine Boathouse to the fountain on weekends from March to September (every day from mid-July to late August).

People lounge in green-and-white striped deck chairs shot from behind in a park on a sunny day
Deck chairs are available for hire through the warmer months © Doug McKinlay / Lonely Planet

Speakers' Corner

Frequented by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, George Orwell and William Morris, Speakers' Corner in the northeastern corner of Hyde Park is traditionally the spot for oratorical flourishes and soapbox ranting. If you’ve got something to get off your chest, do so on Sunday, although you’ll mainly have fringe dwellers, religious fanatics and hecklers for company.

It’s the only place in Britain where demonstrators can assemble without police permission, a concession granted in 1872 after serious riots 17 years before when 150,000 people gathered to demonstrate against the Sunday Trading Bill before Parliament, only to be unexpectedly ambushed by police concealed within Marble Arch. Some historians also link Speakers' Corner with the nearby Tyburn gallows, where condemned criminals might speak to the crowd before being hanged.

A single-story brick building with white columns outside it and a small pagoda on its pointed roof.
The Serpentine Gallery is one of two galleries in Hyde Park © Ron Ellis / Shutterstock

The Serpentine Galleries

Constituting some of the most important contemporary-art spaces in town, these two galleries are a major draw. South of the Serpentine lake is the original Serpentine Gallery, in which Damien Hirst, Andreas Gursky, Louise Bourgeois, Gabriel Orozco, Tomoko Takahashi and Jeff Koons have all exhibited, set in a 1930s former tea pavilion in Kensington Gardens.

Sister establishment the Serpentine Sackler Gallery can be found within the Magazine, a former gunpowder depot, across the Serpentine Bridge. Built in 1805, it was augmented with a daring, undulating extension designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Zaha Hadid.

The galleries run a full program of exhibitions, readings and talks. A leading architect who has never previously built in the UK is annually commissioned to build a new "Summer Pavilion" nearby, open from June to October.

A pergola over a path in a flower-filled garden
The Rose Garden has colorful flowers all year round © irisphoto1 / Shutterstock

History

Henry VIII expropriated the park from the church in 1536. It then became a hunting ground for kings and aristocrats, and later a place for duels, executions and horse racing. The park was the site of the Great Exhibition in 1851, and during WWII became a vast potato bed. 

Hotels near Hyde Park

To the northside of Hyde Park, around Lancaster Gate, Queensway and Bayswater Tubes, there are some decent budget accommodation choices. Kensington is packed with high-end hotels near the park. The best options there are:

37 Trevor Square
Knightsbridge Hotel
Lanesborough

Transportation

  • underground: Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, Queensway

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Kensington & Hyde Park attractions

1. Serpentine Lake

0.25 MILES

Hyde Park is separated from Kensington Gardens by the gently curving Serpentine lake, created when the River Westbourne was dammed in the 1730s. At…

2. Serpentine Sackler Gallery

0.28 MILES

This exhibition space is part of the Serpentine Galleries, located within the Magazine, a former Palladian villa–style gunpowder depot dating to 1805,…

3. Tyburn Convent

0.3 MILES

A convent was established here in 1903, near the site of the Tyburn Tree gallows, and a closed order of Benedictine sisters still forms a community here…

4. Speakers’ Corner

0.36 MILES

Frequented by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, George Orwell and William Morris, Speakers' Corner in the northeastern corner of Hyde Park is traditionally the…

5. The Arch

0.36 MILES

Fashioned in stone from northern Italy, this 37-tonne travertine statue by Henry Moore provides phenomenal views of Kensington Palace.

6. Tyburn Tree Memorial Plaque

0.38 MILES

A plaque on the traffic island at Marble Arch indicates the spot where the infamous Tyburn Tree, a three-legged gallows, once stood. An estimated 50,000…

8. Marble Arch

0.41 MILES

Designed by John Nash in 1828, this huge white arch was moved here next to Speaker's Corner from its original spot in front of Buckingham Palace in 1851…

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