Hyde Park
the city's big green lung
Three hundred and fifty acres of Royal Park in the middle of London, free, with a lake to row, a soapbox at Speakers' Corner and room to lose the whole city.
Free to visit · Hyde Park · Hyde Park Corner · W2 2UH
Opening: Daily 5am–midnight
Hyde Park is the great free escape in the middle of London, three hundred and fifty acres where you can walk for half an hour and forget there is a city around you at all. It has been open to the public since 1637 and Londoners have been protesting, swimming, riding and sunbathing in it ever since.
Down the middle runs the Serpentine, the lake you can row on or just sit beside, and on the north-east corner is Speakers' Corner, where anyone has stood up and said their piece since the 1800s. Add the rose garden, the memorials and the long tree-lined avenues and you have a whole free day in the centre of town.
It joins straight onto Kensington Gardens, so you can wander from Hyde Park Corner all the way to Kensington Palace without leaving the green. It is the kind of free that you stop noticing is free, which is exactly the point.
Getting there: Ringed by tube stops, Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Lancaster Gate and Knightsbridge all drop you at a gate.
Best time to go: Early morning for the calm, or a Sunday late morning when Speakers' Corner is in full flow.
Insider tip: Go to Speakers' Corner on a Sunday late morning. It is the last place of its kind in the world, where anyone can climb up and argue about anything, and watching the hecklers go at it is one of the best free shows in London.
Official site: https://www.royalparks.org.uk/visit/parks/hyde-park
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide