Kensington Gardens

For the Adelaide suburb, see Kensington Gardens, South Australia. For the buildings in Buffalo, New York, see Kensington Gardens Apartment Complex.

View across The Long Water to Kensington Palace

Map of Kensington, showing the gardens

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.

History

Kensington Gardens was carved out of the western section of Hyde Park and designed c.1728–1738 by Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman, with fashionable features including the Round Pond, formal avenues and a sunken Dutch garden.

Charles Bridgeman created the Serpentine in the 1730s by damming the eastern outflow of the River Westbourne from Hyde Park for Queen Caroline. The part of the Serpentine that lies within Kensington Gardens is known as "The Long Water". At its north-western end (originally the inflow of the River Westbourne) in an area known as "The Italian Garden", there are four fountains and a number of classical sculptures. At the foot of the Italian Gardens is a parish boundary marker, delineating the boundary between Paddington and St George Hanover Square parishes, on the exact centre of the Westbourne river.

Kensington Gardens are generally regarded as being the western extent of the neighbouring Hyde Park from which they were originally taken, with West Carriage Drive (The Ring) and the Serpentine Bridge forming the boundary between them. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park. Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round, which includes many hours of darkness.

Kensington Gardens were long regarded as smarter than Hyde Park because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 1800s, Hyde Park was considered the more "fashionable" of the two because of its location nearer to Park Lane (Mayfair) and Knightsbridge, adjoining the entrance to central London opposite Wellington Arch and was therefore more crowded.

The land surrounding Kensington Gardens was predominantly rural and remained largely undeveloped until the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and now there are other public buildings such as the Albert Memorial (at the south-east corner of Kensington Gardens, opposite the Royal Albert Hall), the Serpentine Gallery, and Speke's monument.

The park also contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump.

Cultural references

The park is the setting of J.M. Barrie's book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, a prelude to the character's famous adventures in Neverland. The fairies of the gardens are first described in Thomas Tickell's 1722 poem Kensington Gardens. Both the book and the character are honoured with the Peter Pan statue located in the park.

Rodrigo Fresan's novel Kensingston Gardens concerns in part the life of J.M. Barrie and of his creation Peter Pan, and their relationship with the park, as well as the narrator's own.

The Infocom interactive fiction game Trinity begins in the Kensington Gardens. The player can walk around many sections of the gardens, which are described in moderate detail.

The park is a prominent aspect of the short horror novel The Beast, Ashley McClung, due to the events of the opening and closing chapters occurring at this location.

Gallery

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  Italian Garden fountains
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  The Serpentine Bridge seen from Hyde Park
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  The Long Water looking north-west from the Serpentine Bridge
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  The Albert Memorial
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  Statue of Peter Pan
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  Kensington Gardens
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  Physical Energy by G. F. Watts
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  Physical Energy sculpture
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  The gardens and palace in winter

External links

• Kensington Gardens, official website
• Kensington gardens landscape architecture
• Article on Kensington Gardens
• The Garden a poem by Ezra Pound set in Kensington Gardens