The Royal Parks

Technically in the domain of the Crown, with no real legal right of access for the general public, London's impeccably maintained Royal Parks nevertheless manage to not have a whiff of the private about them; they simply feel very London, and rank among the world's great urban green spaces. Some are open round the clock, others until dusk or midnight. And as a break from the capital's traffic and cultural demands or if you have a moment to spare for communing with nature, contemplation and/or extracurricular human interaction, you really can't go wrong with any of the following: HYDE PARK (London's closest thing to Central Park, with more than 4,000 trees, handsome avenues, a pond, outdoor summer concerts, public demonstrations and more including the rather cruisy corner section near Hyde Park Corner tube) and the directly adjacent KENSINGTON GARDENS (home of the Serpentine Gallery [see entry], the Italian Garden, Prince Albert Memorial, Kensington Palace and the Orangery for tea and cakes); the beautiful THE REGENT'S PARK (home of London Zoo [see entry], rose-abundant Queen Mary's Gardens and men playing sports) and the directly adjacent PRIMROSE HILL (among the best and biggest views of London, shows up a lot in films and on TV, adjacent to a very quaint neighbourhood of same name, also near Regent's Canal [see entry] and Camden Town); ST JAMES'S PARK (sumptuously lovely with ducks, geese, pelicans, pond and weeping willows, adjacent to the Mall and the architecturally unexceptional mansion housing the Queen); and the GREEN PARK (quietish and central, the park no one readily talks about). Far further afield but still Royal are west London's RICHMOND PARK (expansive pastoral wilderness with a sizeable deer community, contiguous with the desirable if institutionalised-quaint village of Richmond) and, in the southeast, GREENWICH PARK (a few deer, big views of London and proximity to historic Greenwich, well worth a visit). Other lovely green spaces in London where the public like to roam — occasionally including conspicuously perambulating gay males — are CLAPHAM COMMON (south London), BROMPTON CEMETERY (in former gay ghetto Earl's Court), SOHO SQUARE (intimate gay-popular space close to many bars) and, most vitally on several counts, north London's HAMPSTEAD HEATH [see entry in Bars section]. Plus HOLLAND PARK (west London, noted for its Orangery, Japanese garden, squirrels and peacocks, convenient for pretty neighbourhoods Holland Park, Kensington (with Kensington High St shopping) and Notting Hill (with Saturday antiques market on Portobello Road) plus the former (?) gay cruising promenade Holland Walk) and Bloomsbury's RUSSELL SQUARE (beautifully restored Victorian space, though with bushes cut back it's no longer the cruising ground it once was).