Green Park
The plainest and most peaceful Royal Park, free, a great sweep of grass and old trees between Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly, made for lying under a tree and doing nothing.
FREE
The lowdown
Green Park is the odd one out among the Royal Parks. It has no lake, no flowerbeds and no statues to speak of, just fifty-three acres of grass and mature trees, and that emptiness is exactly the point. It is the great green breathing space between the traffic of Piccadilly and the pomp of Buckingham Palace.
The story goes it was kept deliberately plain, with no flowers, after a queen took offence at her husband picking blooms here for another woman. True or not, what you get is a calm, simple park made for lying on the grass, reading or dozing, which Londoners do in their thousands the moment the sun comes out.
It joins straight onto St James's Park and the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, so it is the perfect free green link in a walk between the West End and Westminster. In spring it turns gold with wild daffodils under the planes.
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