Hyde Park, London

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.

The park was the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton. The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations.  The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park covers 142 hectares (350 acres) and Kensington Gardens covers 111 hectares (270 acres), giving an overall area of 253 hectares (630 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 hectares, 480 acres), though smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 hectares, 840 acres). To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.

Hyde Park is the largest of four parks which form a chain from the entrance of Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park (19 hectares), past the main entrance to Buckingham Palace and then on through Saint James's Park (23 hectares) to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall.

Kensington Gardens

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View across The Long Water to Kensington Palace

Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, lying within western central London. The park covers an area of 111 hectares (270 acres). The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James's Park together form an almost continuous "green lung" in the heart of London between Kensington and Westminster.

Bushy Park

Bushy Park is the second largest of London's Royal Parks, at 445 hectares (1,100 acres) in area, and lies immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and Hampton Court Park.

It is surrounded by Teddington, Hampton, Hampton Hill and Hampton Wick, and is a few minutes walk from the north side of Kingston Bridge.

The Park is within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south-west London and most of it is open to the public. Its acid grasslands are mostly just above the 25 foot contour.

Green Park

The Green Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London - one of the Royal Parks of London. Covering 19 hectares (47 acres), it lies between London's Hyde Park and St. James's Park. Together with Kensington Gardens and the gardens of Buckingham Palace, these parks form an almost unbroken stretch of open land reaching from Whitehall and Victoria station toKensington and Notting Hill.

By contrast with its neighbours, Green Park has no lakes, no buildings and few monuments, having only the Canada Memorial by Pierre Granche, the Constance Fund Fountain and the RAF Bomber Command Memorial, opened in 2012. The park consists entirely of mature trees rising out of turf: parkland; the only flowers are naturalized narcissus. The park is bounded on the south by Constitution Hill, on the east by the pedestrian Queen's Walk, and on the north by Piccadilly. It meets St. James's Park at Queen's Gardens with the Victoria Memorial at its centre, opposite the entrance to Buckingham Palace. To the south is the ceremonial avenue of The Mall, and the buildings of St James's Palace and Clarence House overlook the park to the east. Green Park tube station is a major interchange located on Piccadilly, Victoria and Jubilee lines near the north end of Queen's Walk.