Royal Parks of London

Start with the ground under your feet. Gravel crunches softly on the paths, then gives way to damp, springy grass. Somewhere nearby a coot calls from the water, and the traffic of Marylebone fades into a low hum. Look up, and long cream-coloured terraces line the edge of the green. This is Regent's Park, one of London's Royal Parks. It is the one closest to where you are standing now.

First, what the name means. The Royal Parks are a family of eight large green spaces across London. They are Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Saint James's Park, Regent's Park, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park and Bushy Park. They began as land owned by the Crown, which means the monarch. Over the centuries they opened to the public. Today a charity looks after them, and anyone can walk in.

Many of these parks share one surprising origin. They were hunting grounds. In the sixteenth century, King Henry the Eighth took large areas of land around London for himself. Much of it came from the monasteries he closed when he broke with the Church in Rome. He wanted space to chase deer. The ground you are walking on was once part of that royal hunting chase, known then as Marylebone Park.

For a long time, this land was simply farmland and pasture. Cows grazed here, and the city stayed at a distance. Then, in the early nineteenth century, everything changed. The future King George the Fourth was ruling as Prince Regent, while his father was unwell. The architect John Nash, a favourite of the Prince, drew up a bold plan for this land. The park still carries the Regent's name today.

Nash imagined a garden city for the wealthy. He planned dozens of elegant villas scattered among the trees, and a grand residence for the Prince himself. Here is the first surprise. Most of that plan never happened. Only a handful of villas were built, and the royal residence stayed on paper. What survived is the frame — the white stucco terraces around the edge, which look like palaces but are really rows of houses.

Walk close to one of those terraces and look carefully. Stucco is a smooth plaster coating over brick, painted to look like expensive stone. From a distance the effect is grand, with columns, statues and sculpted pediments, the triangle shapes above the columns. Up close, you can see the trick. This was theatre in architecture. Nash gave Londoners the look of a palace at a fraction of the cost.

The park is shaped by two rings of road. The Outer Circle runs around the edge, and the Inner Circle loops around the centre. Inside that inner ring, you find Queen Mary's Gardens. They are named after the wife of King George the Fifth and were laid out in the 1930s. In summer, this is the place for roses. Thousands of plants fill the beds with colour, and the air carries a sweet, heavy scent.

Also inside the Inner Circle is something many visitors miss entirely. It is an open-air theatre, set among the trees. On summer evenings, plays are performed here under the open sky. Actors compete with birdsong and the fading light. If you pass on a quiet afternoon, you may only see the empty seats behind a fence. But that is the second surprise of this park — a full theatre, hidden in the gardens.

Now listen for sounds you would not expect in central London. On the northern side of the park sits London Zoo. It opened here in the 1820s and is one of the oldest scientific zoos in the world. On some days, from the paths nearby, you may catch an unfamiliar call over the hedges. Just beyond the zoo, the Regent's Canal runs along the park's northern edge. Narrowboats move slowly through the water.

The other Royal Parks each have their own character. Hyde Park held the Great Exhibition of 1851, inside a vast building of glass and iron called the Crystal Palace. Its long lake, the Serpentine, was created in the eighteenth century. In Saint James's Park, pelicans have lived for centuries. The first ones were a gift from a Russian ambassador in the 1660s. Richmond Park, further west, still has herds of wild deer.

That link to deer brings the story full circle. The parks began as private spaces for royal hunting. Today they work as the lungs of the city. Office workers eat lunch on the benches. Runners loop the paths at dawn. Families feed the ducks, and dog walkers nod to each other. The same land that once kept the public out now belongs, in practice, to everyone.

If you have energy left, cross the road to the north and climb Primrose Hill. It is a separate hill, but it is managed together with Regent's Park. From the top, the whole city opens out in front of you. You can pick out towers, domes and cranes across the skyline. On a clear evening, people gather there quietly to watch the sun go down over London.

Before you move on, pause for a moment where you are. Notice the plane trees, with their bark peeling in patches of grey, cream and green. Notice the wide sky, which is rare in a city this crowded. The terraces stand at the edge, the grass stretches out in the middle, and the noise of the streets stays outside. As you walk away, listen for the moment the traffic returns.