Regent’s Park
Regent’s Park is a beautiful park complex in central London. It includes many areas for active recreation and sports. The area of the park is 188 hectares.
Regent’s Park used to be called Marylebone Park and, like many other royal parks, was once a royal hunting reserve. Here in the 16th century Henry VIII hunted deer, but then the park was used until the 19th century, first as a source of timber, then as land for fields and vegetable gardens. The situation changed in the early 19th century, when King George III became seriously ill and his son became regent. He wanted a new palace for himself and, accordingly, a new park. The realization of the project was entrusted to the famous architect John Nash, who called the new park – Regent’s park. The new attraction was finished in 1835, and only ten years later the entrance was made free for all Londoners. Since then, new buildings and places of interest have appeared in the park, but its layout has remained the original – a complex system of rings connected by vectors of alleys.
The area of the park is about two hundred hectares. Most of it is devoted to sectors-flowers, which are called gardens. They are separated from each other by internal gilded gates. The most beautiful of these is the garden of Queen Mary, or the garden of the roses. It was laid out in 1932. Here grows more than thirty thousand roses of four hundred varieties. Many of them belong to the climbing varieties, and special supports were made precisely in order to be wrapped around the shoots of roses and form not only horizontal but also vertical rose garden. In the garden of Queen Mary a wonderful strong fragrance of roses, which combines the most subtle shades of scents of rare varieties, is constantly fragrant. By the way, all varieties of roses are marked with plaques with their names.
Not far from the rose garden there is a descent to a cozy little lake. Its shores are covered with irises and ferns, there are many benches for rest, and those who want to swim on the lake on a boat can rent it. Right in the water there is a bronze sculpture of an eagle. Despite the small size of the pond, there is its own small island, which is designed in the Japanese style. A beautiful curved bridge and a small waterfall complete the image of the lake.
Walking through the park, it is impossible not to pay attention to all its lovingly maintained in order complex and beautiful structure. The carefully trimmed hedges are perfectly shaped, and the classic English lawn is as beautiful as a carpet. Nevertheless, the English style of parks also implies the obligatory presence of corners of wildlife in an almost untouched form – there are these, where old oaks, plane trees and elms grow.
In Regent’s Park is located the central London mosque, from a distance its building looks like a water tower. So do not be surprised to meet here and there in the park people in Muslim clothes and with a Koran in their hands – they are worshippers of the mosque, which can accommodate five thousand people.
Finally if you just want to sit in the grass and enjoy the view then head to the north of Regent’s Park, to Primrose Hill. It’s a hill where Londoners like to picnic because of its large open, sunny spaces. There’s also a large playground.
