With its thousands of stunning trees and plants, London’s beautiful Hyde Park is a wonderful place to stroll with your family and friends throughout the year. So with the adjoining Kensington Gardens, these two magnificent spaces form one of London’s largest green areas. Perfect for jogging and strolling, you can escape the hustle and bustle in Hyde Park and go back to nature.
Sports
Boating on The Serpentine: in Hyde Park there is a fleet of rowing and pedal boats for visitors to enjoy gliding across the lake. A great way to spend an afternoon.
Sports: The Hyde Park Tennis and Sports Centre is at the western end of the Sports Field at the junction between West Carriage Drive and South Carriage Drive. There are 6 tennis courts, a 6 rink lawn bowling green and a 9 hole putting green, a cafe and changing facilities.
Tennis: There are 6 high-quality tennis courts at the Hyde Park Tennis and Sports Centre. Visitors to the park are encouraged to turn up and play and a range of membership options are available. And coaching courses are run for children and for adults. Tournaments are organised and teams can also play in local tennis leagues.
Lawn Bowls: The Hyde Park Tennis and Sports Centre has a well-maintained 6 rink flat green bowling green. The bowling green is available from May-October (weather dependent) to individuals, families, groups of friends or established clubs to hire and can be pre-booked. Bowls of all sizes are available for hire.
Putting Green: The Centre also has a challenging and well maintained 9 hole putting course, popular with both groups and families.
Refreshments
The Serpentine Bar & Kitchen, inspired by English country living, is a retreat for both Londoners and visitors alike. They serve tasty hot meals and snacks, sandwiches, salads, cakes, puddings and drinks.
The Lido Bar and Cafe offers stunning views of The Serpentine and has a large alfresco dining area. It’s a great space to relax and enjoy Hyde Park with your family.
In Memory of Princess Diana
The Diana Memorial Fountain: Built from 545 pieces of Cornish granite, the design aims to reflect the mercurial Diana’s life. Its water flows in two directions, cascading, swirling and bubbling before meeting in a calm pool. There are three bridges where you can cross the water and go right to the heart of the fountain.
In the Kensington Gardens area, The Serpentine Galleries comprise two contemporary art galleries – The Serpentine Gallery and The Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Usefully, they are linked by the bridge over the Serpentine Lake from which the galleries get their names.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground children’s wonderland opened on in June 2000, in memory of the late Princess Diana. Located next to the Kensington Palace home she occupied during her marriage, a huge wooden pirate ship is the amazing centrepiece of this fitting tribute to the child-loving Princess. Inspired by the stories of Peter Pan, the design includes an area where less able and able-bodied children can play together.
The playground encourages children to explore and follow their imaginations and learn through play. Some 70,000+ children enjoy this free playground each year, playing, exploring, dashing about and letting their imaginations soar. There is a sensory trail, teepees, a beach, various toys and play sculptures; all set against a lush backdrop of trees and plants. There’s plenty of seating so the grownups can relax too. You can enjoy a coffee in the playground while their children rush around and use up their energy in imaginary games!
Hyde Park – a natural habitat
Wildlife: Hyde Park provides a unique habitat for a diverse variety of species of flora and fauna and positive changes in management practices have encouraged new species to adopt the park as their home! The meadow area gives a flavour of how Hyde Park once looked in the past and this area has become more diverse year on year since its creation and of special delight to visitors is the sight of butterflies feeding from the native wildflowers in the meadow.
Birdlife
Trees, shrub beds and and an abundance of herbaceous plantings provide rich habitats for song birds including robins, dunnocks and tits. Look out for small groups of long tailed tits that hop around from tree to tree looking for insects and nesting materials. Sadly, over feeding of aggressive feral pigeons and squirrels threatens the native song birds as they are not able to compete with these robust pests.
Goose Duckling: The Serpentine attracts many wildfowl, many of which are winter visitors to the park. Look out for the exotic looking great crested grebes and their spectacular mating rituals. The lake also attracts a large number of insects providing a perfect feeding ground for bats. The best place to view bats is on Dell Bridge around dusk and also close to Serpentine Bridge.
Much of the wildlife in the park goes unnoticed by the majority of visitors. Keep your eyes peeled for a large number of ‘minibeasts’ such as beetles, bees and ground foraging insects. These insects are a vital component of the park ecosystem and the creation and protection of their habitats is very important for the health of the park.
Look out for other exotic and unusual visitors which descend on Hyde Park from time to time. Recent sightings have included a black swan, a buzzard and egyptian geese.
Opening Times
Hyde Park is open from 5:00 am until midnight all year round.
Where to stay
We offer some great family apartments close to Hyde Park.
Getting to Hyde Park
London’s beautiful Hyde Park is highly accessible by public transport, both by underground and by bus. There is limited car parking available but we recommend that visitors come by public transport. The general postcode for the park is W2 2UH, but it covers a large area so we suggest you plan your journey carefully.
By Tube
Tube stations close to Hyde Park are:
Lancaster Gate (Central Line), Marble Arch (Central Line), Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly Line), Knightsbridge (Piccadilly Line).
By Bus
North : C2, 6, 7, 10, 16, 19, 23, 36, 52, 73, 82, 98, 113, 274, 390, 414
South : 2, 36, 137, 148, 159, 436
West : 9, 10, 14, 19, 22, 52, 74, 94, 148, 414
East : 8,15, 23, 30, 38,274
Hyde Park – make sure you visit when you come to London!
On a Sunday
Speakers’ Corner: a famous, traditional site for public speeches and debates since the 1800’s when protests and demonstrations took place in Hyde Park. Historic figures such as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and George Orwell used to speak to the gathered crowds and exercise their right to free speech. So on a Sunday morning, it is not unusual to find hordes of people converging on Speakers’ Corner to listen to enthusiasts expounding their views. Anyone can turn up unannounced to speak on any subject, as long as the police consider their speeches lawful.
