Saint Jame’s Park

Saint Jame’s Park (94)

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This park, close to Buckingham Palace, is very popular amongst Londoners, especially on sunny days. Its 23 hectares were marshland until, as occurred with many parks in the city, Henry VIII took it as a hunting reserve. However, the marshlands had to be drained beforehand.

Whether for its millions of flowers of a thousand and one varieties, its abundance of shrubs, mulberry trees and cypresses, its open-air concerts or for the many birds that congregate here, the park has something special about it. In fact, if you lose yourself among its trees and winding avenues you may forget, for a moment, that you are in the middle of a big city.

At the end of the 17th century this urban oasis was reorganised following a design by Le Nôtre and it became a French-style garden, the type of landscape in those days that was all the rage.

Flanked today by the Mall, the space was turned into a park by Charles II, who also enlarged the aviary that James I has installed.

Birds are still very important for this area of green land. In fact, on the artificial lake that was built after the reform undertaken in 1829 by John Nash, there is an island, Duck Island, on which gather ducks, pelicans, seagulls, geese and the occasional swan. The most expert birdwatchers recommend approaching the lake in the early hours of the morning.

The lake, crossed by a bridge built in the mid-20th century, gives you some fantastic views of Buckingham Palace, and forms one of the top attractions of Nash’s project, the arrangement of which has remained practically intact over all this time.

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