Parks in London
London is a super green city. There are literally parks e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Ok, it’s true that the weather in the UK is not the best for taking the best out of the parks around you but at least when it’s not raining and it’s not that cold you can enjoy an awesome picnic, a sport activity or just a walk. Find below a list of London’s best parks including opening hours.1# Hyde Park
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers’ Corner and Princess Diana of Wales memorial. The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. To the east of the Serpentine, just beyond the dam, is London’s Holocaust Memorial. (taken from Wikipedia)
2# Green Park
Green Park 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. By contrast with its neighbours, Green Park has no lakes, no buildings and few monuments, having only the Canada Memorial by Pierre Granche and the Constance Fund Fountain
Open daily,
05.00-midnight
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Piccadilly,
London,
W1J 9DZ
ENTRY IS FREE
3# Regents Park
Regents Park contains Regent’s College and the London Zoo. The south, east and most of the west side of the park are lined with elegant white stucco terraces of houses designed by John Nash. Running through the northern end of the park is Regent’s Canal, which connects the Grand Union Canal to the former London docks. The park is mainly open parkland which enjoys a wide range of facilities and amenities including gardens, a lake with a heronry, waterfowl and a boating area, sports pitches, and children’s playgrounds.
Open daily,
05.00-midnight
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163 Royal College St,
London,
NW1 0SG
ENTRY IS FREE
4# Bushy Park
Bushy Park is the second largest of London’s Royal Parks and lies immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and Hampton Court Park. Originally created for Royal sport, Bushy Park is now home to a Rugby Club, a Hockey Club and four cricket clubs. It also has fishing and model boating ponds, horse rides, formal plantations of trees and other plants, wildlife conservation areas and herds of both Red Deer and Fallow Deer.
Open daily,
06.30-dusk (19.00 in winter)
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The Stockyard,
Hampton,
TW12 2EJ
ENTRY IS FREE
5# Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south east London and part of the Greenwich World Heritage Site. On the lower level of the park there is a popular children’s playground, an adjacent boating lake and a herb garden. On the upper level, there is an extensive flower garden complete with large duck pond, a rose garden, a cricket pitch, swirling trunks, tennis courts, a bandstand, Roman remains, an ancient oak tree and an enclosure housing some wild deer. Finally it is worth mentioning that there are cycle routes criss-cross the park.
Open daily,
dawn to dusk
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Charlton Way,
London
SE10 8QY
ENTRY IS FREE
6# Richmond Park
Richmond Park is the largest of the Royal Parks in London and Britain’s second largest urban walled park. The park is famous for its red and fallow deer, which number over six hundred. There is a protected view of St Paul’s Cathedral from King Henry VIII’s Mound, and a view of central London’s London Eye, Natwest Tower and ‘The Gherkin’, appearing to be close to each other. The Park contains notable buildings such as the Pembroke Lodge, the Royal Ballet School and 4 other houses.
Open daily,
dawn to dusk
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Charlton Way,
London
SE10 8QY
ENTRY IS FREE
7# St. James’s Park
St. James’s Park is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park has a small lake, St. James’s Park Lake, with two islands, West Island, and Duck Island, which is named for the lake’s collection of waterfowl.
Open daily,
05.00-midnight
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Horse Guards Road,
London,
SW1A 2BJ
ENTRY IS FREE
8# Victoria Park
Victoria Park stretches out across part of the East End of London, England bordering parts of Bethnal Green, Hackney, and Bow, such as along Old Ford Road, London E3 and Victoria Park Road E9. The park is entirely within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and it contains canals, ponds, a pavilion, tennis courts and a sports ground. It is also used as a concert venue and hosts many festivals each year. Work began on the refurbishment of the park in January 2011 and will be completed by April 2012.
Open daily,
6:00am to dusk
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ENTRY IS FREE
9# Southwark Park
Southwark Park is located in Rotherhithe, in central South East London. It first opened in 1869, designed by Alexander McKenzie and covers 63 acres (250,000 m2). The park includes a cafe, a wildlife garden, a boating lake, an art gallery, an athletics track run by Fusion, a bowling green, football pitches and tennis courts.
Open daily,
7.30- dusk
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Gomm Road,
London,
SE16 2UA
ENTRY IS FREE
10# Battersea Park
The park is home to a small children’s zoo, a boating lake, a bandstand, and several all-weather outdoor sporting facilities including tennis courts, a running track and football pitches. The park is also the site of the London Peace Pagoda, erected in 1985.
Open daily,
Winter: 10:00- dusk
Summer: 10:00-17:00
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Albert Bridge Road,
London,
SW11 4NJ
ENTRY IS FREE
11# Finsbury Park
The park provides a large green space in central north London. It has a mix of open ground, formal gardens, avenues of mature trees and an arboretum area with a mix of more unusual trees. There is also a lake, a children’s play areas, a cafe and an art exhibition space.There is a pedestrian and cycle route with much of the feel of a country walk, that links the park with Crouch Hill Park, Crouch End, and Highgate tube station.Sports facilities in the park include football pitches, a bowling green, an athletics stadium, and tennis and basketball courts.
Open daily,
6.30-dusk
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ENTRY IS FREE
12# Brockwell Park
The park also commands views of the skyline of the city and Central London. At the top of the hill within the park stands Brockwell Hall. Brockwell Park contains a number of amenities, including tennis courts, a bowling green, a BMX track and a miniature railway.
Open daily,
7:30-17:15
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139 Dulwich Road,
London,
SE24 0NG
ENTRY IS FREE
13# Holland Park
Holland Park is considered one of the most romantic and peaceful parks of central London. The park contains a famous Orangery, a giant chess set, a cricket pitch, tennis courts, a Japanese garden, a youth hostel, one of London’s best equipped children’s playgrounds, squirrels and peacocks.
Open daily,
7.30-30 minutes before dusk
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ENTRY IS FREE
14# Kensington 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.
Open daily,
6.00-midnight
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London
W2 2UH
ENTRY IS FREE
15# Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is a large, ancient London park, covering 320 hectares (790 acres). The Heath has long been a popular place for Londoners to walk and take in the air. Running along its eastern perimeter are a chain of ponds – including three open-air public swimming pools – which were originally reservoirs for drinking water from the River Fleet. Lakeside concerts are held there in summer. Finally there are two cafés within the park.
Open 24hours daily,
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432 Archway Road
London
NW6 4JH
ENTRY IS FREE
16# Clapham Common
Clapham Common is an 89 hectare (220 acre) triangular area of grassland situated in south London, England. It contains three ponds which are historical features and a more modern paddling pool known as Cock Pond.
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Windmill Drive,
London,
SW4 9DE
ENTRY IS FREE
17# Lee Valley Park
The park is made up of a diverse mix of countryside areas, urban green spaces, heritage sites, country parks, nature reserves and lakes and riverside trails, as well as leading sports centres covering an area of over 10,000 acres (40 km2). It is crossed by a number of roads and railways. There are a number of major reservoirs within it, and multiple water courses, both to carry the river flow, and also to provide navigation waterways and flood relief channels.
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London,
EN2 9HG
ENTRY IS FREE