Green Park Outdoor Activity / Park

Mayfair / Knightsbridge, London –

A destination for angry royals looking to duel, a hideaway for thieves with stolen booty in hand, and even a swampy cemetery for lepers all dot Green Park’s varied past – an ironic twist considering the park now offers a serene escape from London’s mad hustle.

Along with Kensington Gardens and the gardens surrounding Buckingham Palace, Green Park completes an expansive chain of open spaces connecting St. James's Park to Hyde Park, which together create a nearly seamless stretch of open space that runs from Whitehall all the way to Notting Hill.

Without a single building to interrupt the forty-seven acre expanse of rare black poplars and silver maples, cyclists, joggers, sunbathers, and picnickers are treated to some of London’s most idyllic paths and bucolic nooks in which to while away the day.

With the exception of the quarter-million daffodils that turn the area a vibrant yellow each spring, the park has no flowerbeds or shrubs, and hasn’t since Queen Catherine – so the legend goes – learned that her adulterous husband, King Charles II, had gone flower picking for another woman on its grounds.

Nevertheless, Green Park’s lack of floral diversity is a small price to pay for such rustic tranquility amid a city of eight million, making it the perfect place for visitors to stop and smell the roses – metaphorically, of course.