The Serpentine Bridge divides Queen Caroline’s lake and her park into Hyde Park to the east (in which the barracks are situated) and Kensington Gardens to the west, ending in Kensington Palace with its Orangerie and its lovely sunken garden. To the north the lake ends in the Italian Gardens, created in the 1860s by …
Hampstead Heath
The Serpentine
Leaving yesterday’s swans behind I headed into the tunnel under the lovely sandstone bridge over the Serpentine, emerging on the other side beside the most enormous willow tree many of whose branches have dropped down in the lake. Just above, on the corner of the bridge is the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in the old ‘Magazine’, …
A concatenation of swans…..
I found myself, unexpectedly, in Kensington Gardens yesterday evening – on the kind of clear, glistening evening that only happens after a good downpour. I parked on the Hyde Park side of the Serpentine Bridge – parking only just reopened – and walked down to the edge of the lake. The lake, a single swan, …
Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill, where I was yesterday, is very different from Hampstead Heath – a park rather than a heath for a start and a fraction of the size – but still close enough I think to squeeze into this blog. The summit is almost 63 metres above sea level and it does have a great …
More trees – and swans
Do you remember those little cygnets of only a few weeks ago? Just look how they have grown. (With thanks to one of our readers for the picture.) I wonder if that is the widowed swan lady with her new partner… Meanwhile, a few more trees for you but this time not Mr Drori’s trees, …
Hampstead Heath Extension – part 2….
So here we are, right at the very bottom of the ex-Wylde’s Farm Hampstead Heath extension, looking at it through ‘The Great Wall’. Well, given that it is only about 500 metres long and never more than 5 metres high, ‘The Great Wall’ may be a bit of an overstatement, but that is what it …