Bradshaw’s Hand Book, The West, District III, Kensington Park & Holland Park, (No.29)

Another beautiful afternoon and a few hours of quiet enjoyment. Today Mr Bradshaw encouraged me to visit Kensington Park and Holland Park.

I entered Kensington Park through Alexandra Gate on the Carriage Drive which separates Hyde Park from Kensington Park, dividing the lake into The Serpentine and the Long Water. Kensington Park was much quieter than Hyde Park, more like a private garden people were behaving accordingly. There were no Boris Bikers!

There were statues and memorials, but no war memorials; Prince Albert (1872) is there, but looking away from the Parks; Peter Pan (1912) celebrates fantasy; the Speke Memorial (1866) honours the man who discovered the source of the Nile; there is a statue of Physical Energy (1907), one of three, the others are in South Africa and Zimbabwe – only it would have been Rhodesia at the time; and Queen Caroline’s Temple of 1734 by William Kent.

People were behaving differently from Hyde Park too – lying in the sun, reading, chatting, strolling, watching the birds, just ‘being’…

There were still flowers to be seen.

It was easy to forget the City and imagine being in woods, or parklands surrounding a grand country home.

And as I was leaving to catch a bus to Charing Cross I found these –