Kensington Gardens

Last updated

View across The Long Water to Kensington Palace Kensington Palace from across Long Water.JPG
View across The Long Water to Kensington Palace

Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, in western central London known as the West End. The gardens cover an area of 107 hectares (265 acres). [1] 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. Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [2]

Contents

Background and location

Map of Kensington, showing the gardens Location map Kensington.png
Map of Kensington, showing the gardens

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.

Kensington Gardens has been long regarded as "smart" because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 19th century, Hyde Park was considered more "fashionable", because of its location nearer to Park Lane and Knightsbridge. [3]

History

Kensington Gardens was originally the western section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. Beginning under Queen Anne, it was designed by Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman in order to form a landscape garden, with fashionable features including the Round Pond, [4] formal avenues and a sunken Dutch garden. [5] It was separated from the remainder of Hyde Park in 1728 at the request of Queen Caroline. [6]

Bridgeman created the Serpentine between 1726 and 1731 [4] by damming the eastern outflow of the River Westbourne from Hyde Park. [7] The part of the Serpentine that lies within Kensington Gardens is known as "The Long Water". [4] 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 were opened to the public in 1841.

Buildings and monuments

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground (erected on the site of the existing Peter Pan children's playground) is inspired by Peter Pan. Pirate ship, Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground, Kensington Gardens 7 June 2011.jpg
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground (erected on the site of the existing Peter Pan children's playground) is inspired by Peter Pan.

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 there are other public buildings such as the Albert Memorial (at the south-east corner of Kensington Gardens, opposite the Royal Albert Hall), Queen Caroline's Temple, the Serpentine Gallery, and Speke's monument. Queen Victoria had commissioned the Italian Gardens and the Albert Memorial during a series of improvements.

Another feature is the bronze statue of Peter Pan by George Frampton standing on a pedestal covered with climbing squirrels, rabbits and mice. It is also home to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground and a seven-mile Memorial Walk. A statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by her daughter, Princess Louise, to celebrate 50 years of her mother's rule stands outside Kensington Palace. [8] The park also contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump.

Peter Pan statue Peter Pan monument.jpg
Peter Pan statue

In his 1722 poem Kensington Garden , Thomas Tickell depicted the area as inhabited by fairies. [9]

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. [10] Both the book and the character are honoured with the Peter Pan statue by George Frampton located in the park.

Rodrigo Fresán's novel Kensington 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 opening scene of Wilkie Collins’s story "Mrs. Zant and the Ghost" (1887) takes place in Kensington Gardens – the section that "remains nearest to the old Palace of Kensington."

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.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyde Park, London</span> Royal Park in London, United Kingdom

Hyde Park is a 350-acre (140 ha), historic Grade I-listed urban park in Westminster, Greater London. A Royal Park, it is the largest of the parks and green spaces that form a chain from Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, past Buckingham Palace to St James's Park. Hyde Park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water lakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Park</span> Royal park in London, England

The Green Park, one of the Royal Parks of London, is in the City of Westminster, Central London. Green Park is to the north of the gardens and semi-circular forecourt of Buckingham Palace, across Constitution Hill road. The park is in the middle of a near-continuous chain of green spaces in Westminster that includes St James's Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens. To the northwest of Green Park is the district of St James's including, Lancaster House, Clarence House, and St James's Palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Serpentine</span> Lake in Hyde Park, London

The Serpentine is a 40-acre (16 ha) recreational lake in Hyde Park, London, England, created in 1730 at the behest of Queen Caroline. Although it is common to refer to the entire body of water as the Serpentine, the name refers in the strict sense only to the eastern half of the lake. Serpentine Bridge, which marks the boundary between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, also marks the Serpentine's western boundary; the long and narrow western half of the lake is known as the Long Water. The Serpentine takes its name from its snakelike, curving shape, although it only has one bend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St James's Park</span> Royal Park in the City of Westminster, central London

St James's Park is a 23-hectare (57-acre) urban park in the City of Westminster, central London. A Royal Park, it is at the southernmost end of the St James's area, which was named after a once isolated medieval hospital dedicated to St James the Less, now the site of St James's Palace. The area was initially enclosed for a deer park near the Palace of Whitehall for King Henry VIII in the 1530s. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous chain of public parks that includes Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Westbourne</span> River in London, England

The Westbourne or Kilburn, also known as the Ranelagh Sewer, is a culverted small River Thames tributary in London, rising in Hampstead and Brondesbury Park and which as a drain unites and flows southward through Kilburn and Bayswater to skirt underneath the east of Hyde Park's Serpentine lake then through central Chelsea under Sloane Square. It passes centrally under the south side of Royal Hospital Chelsea's Ranelagh Gardens before discharging into Inner London's old-fashioned, but grandiose combined sewer system, with exceptional discharges into the Inner London Tideway. Since the latter 19th century, the population of its catchment has risen further but to reduce the toll it places on the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works and related bills its narrow basin has been assisted by private soakaways, and public surface water drains. Its depression has been replaced with and adopted as a reliable route for a gravity combined sewer. The formation of the Serpentine relied on the water, a lake with a long, ornate footbridge and various activities associated, which today uses little-polluted water from a great depth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Edgar Boehm</span> British sculptor (1834–1890)

Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet, was an Austrian-born British medallist and sculptor, best known for the "Jubilee head" of Queen Victoria on coinage, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. During his career Boehm maintained a large studio in London and produced a significant volume of public works and private commissions. A speciality of Boehm's was the portrait bust; there are many examples of these in the National Portrait Gallery. He was often commissioned by the Royal Family and members of the aristocracy to make sculptures for their parks and gardens. His works were many, and he exhibited 123 of them at the Royal Academy from 1862 to his death in 1890.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Bridgeman</span> English garden designer (1690–1738)

Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer who helped pioneer the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres and avenues to a freer style that incorporated formal, structural and wilderness elements, Bridgeman's innovations in English landscape architecture have been somewhat eclipsed by the work of his more famous successors, William Kent and Lancelot "Capability" Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotten Row</span> Road and bridleway in Hyde Park, London

Rotten Row is a broad track running 1,384 metres (4,541 ft) along the south side of Hyde Park in London. It leads from Hyde Park Corner to Serpentine Road. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper-class Londoners to be seen horse riding. Today it is maintained as a place to ride horses in the centre of London, but it is little used as such.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Frampton</span> British sculptor (1860-1928)

Sir George James Frampton, was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combining various materials such as marble and bronze in a single piece. While his later works were more traditional in style, Frampton had a prolific career in which he created many notable public monuments, including several statues of Queen Victoria and later, after World War I, a number of war memorials. These included the Edith Cavell Memorial in London, which, along with the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens are possibly Frampton's best known works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Pan</span> Character created by James Matthew Barrie

Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Thornycroft</span> English sculptor and engineer (1815-1885)

Thomas Thornycroft was an English sculptor and engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground</span> Memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Kensington Gardens, London

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London.

<i>Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens</i> 1906 novel by J. M. Barrie

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens is a novel by J. M. Barrie, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, and published by Hodder & Stoughton in late November or early December 1906; it is one of four major literary works by Barrie featuring the widely known literary character he created, Peter Pan. Most of the text originally appeared as chapters 13–18 of Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queens Gardens, Perth</span> Park in Perth, Western Australia

Queens Gardens, Perth, is a 3.3-hectare (8.2-acre) park on a former brickworks and clay pit site in the eastern end of the Perth central business district. The park is bounded by Hay Street to the south, Plain Street to the west, Nelson Crescent to the north, and Hale Street to the east, which separates it from the WACA Ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Long Water</span> Artificial lake in London, England

The Long Water is a recreational lake in Kensington Gardens, London, England, created in 1730 at the behest of Caroline of Ansbach. The Long Water refers to the long and narrow western half of the lake that is known as the Serpentine. Serpentine Bridge, which marks the boundary between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, also marks the Long Water's eastern boundary.

<i>Peter Pan</i> statue Sculpture by George Frampton in Kensington Gardens, London

The statue of Peter Pan is a 1912 bronze sculpture of J. M. Barrie's character Peter Pan. It was commissioned by Barrie and made by Sir George Frampton. The original statue is displayed in Kensington Gardens in London, to the west of The Long Water, close to Barrie's former home on Bayswater Road. Barrie's stories were inspired in part by the gardens: the statue is at the place where Peter Pan lands in Barrie's 1902 book The Little White Bird after flying out of his nursery. Six other casts made by Frampton have been erected in other places around the world.

References

Citations
  1. "About Kensington Gardens". The Royal Parks. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  2. Historic England, "Kensington Gardens (1000340)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 10 February 2016
  3. Dunton 1896, p. 30.
  4. 1 2 3 Skempton 2002, p. 341.
  5. Cromwell, Judith Lissauer (2019). Good Queen Anne: Appraising the Life and Reign of the Last Stuart Monarch. McFarland. p. 125.
  6. Self 2014, p. 28.
  7. "Hyde Park History & Architecture". The Royal Parks. 2007. Archived from the original on 13 January 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
  8. "History and Architecture". The Royal Parks.
  9. Hudson, Derek (1968). Kensington Palace. P. Davies. p. 109.
  10. Birkin, Andrew (2003). J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys. Yale University Press. p. 47. ISBN   0-300-09822-7.
Bibliography

51°30′26″N0°10′49″W / 51.50722°N 0.18028°W / 51.50722; -0.18028