London Calling :- Hyde Park
Friday, October 17th, 2008Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine Lake. 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 is 350 acres (140 hectare/1.4 km²) and Kensington Gardens is 275 acres (110 ha/1.1 km²) giving an overall area of 625 acres (250 ha/2.5 km²), making this park larger than the Principality of Monaco (1.96 square kilometres or 485 acres), but still smaller than Central Park (3.41 square kilometres or 843 acres). To the southeast (but outside of 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.
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 Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park.On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses.
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If your so blessed to have a bright sunny day in London, with nothing really to do, then I totally recomend going to Hyde Park. Its a beautiful place filled with open spaces, trees, a lake with swans and pellicans, squirels, kids and people taking their dogs for walks. I arrived at about 10:00am in the morning and noticed there was an event of sorts going on. A charity run I think, with the finishing point in the park. I walked and walked and I was really having a good time taking photo’s of people, animals and trees. I spotted a squirel and as I was trying to take its picture ran out of batteries. I brought spares in my bag, and so I put down my bag and sat on the floor to change batteries and within seconds I had squirels climbing all over me thinking I was going to feed them, which is illegeal by the way. They quickly noticed I had no food and all ran away from me. Its a photographers wet dream this place. Do come and spend the day, especially if you have kids.


