KENSINGTON GARDENS
It is a rather large park in central London, one of the so-called Royal Parks. In this beautiful setting are the royal Kensington Palace, the lovely Italian Gardens with their Fountains, the remarkable 19th-century Albert Memorial (pictured right - see below), Peter Pan statue and the Serpentine Gallery.
On the west it is bordered by the grounds of Kensington Palace, while on the north Bayswater Road runs along it, with the area called Bayswater just behind. The districts of Kensington, South Kensington and Knightsbridge are south of it, and Hyde Park is adjacent to it on the east.
You may say that Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park form one green area, and are separated only by a winding band of roads going from Victoria Gate in the north to Alexandra Gate in the south. They share a long curved lake: the portion of the lake in Kensington Gardens is named the Long Water, and the Hyde Park portion is known as the Serpentine.
Kensington Gardens are very popular as a place of peace and quiet in the middle of bustling London. People living, working or visiting the metropolis enjoy the Gardens for sunbathing and picnics in good weather. It is also a healthy walking route to work much used by commuters. Its paths are popular with runners and joggers. Cycling is allowed on the designated path linking the Queen's Gate to West Carriage Drive, Mount Gate to the Broadwalk and the latter from Black Lion Gate to Palace Gate.
During the 17th-18th centuries, three queens in succession created the elegant landscape of Kensington Gardens: Queen Mary, her sister Queen Anne, and Queen Caroline, the wife of George II.
A (luckily) former royal hunting ground, the park, with its magnificent trees, became a fashionable spot for the promenades of the wealthy in the 1700s; its main path, the Broad Walk, was a place to see and to be seen. For most of the 18th century the park was closed to the general public, and was opened gradually on Saturdays only to the 'respectably dressed'. It was opened to everybody only in the mid-19th century.
The focus of the park in its final shape was Kensington Palace, in the western part of Kensington Gardens, and the Round Pond, created in front of the palace in 1728. Avenues of trees radiated out from the pond, each giving a different view of the palace and offering glimpses of classical-style buildings like the Queen's Temple. Today, expensive model boats are often sailed in the Round Pond, and kites fly overhead.
The park is a place for remembrance, monuments and statues. Besides the Albert Memorial, there is Speke's Monument, a statue of John Hanning Speke, the explorer who discovered the Nile, and a statue to Edward Jenner, who developed a vaccine for smallpox. An attractive feature of the Gardens is the bronze statue of Peter Pan standing on a pedestal covered with climbing rabbits, squirrels and mice.
Not far from Speke's Monument and Peter Pan statue, at the northern end of the Long Water, just inside Marlborough Gate, on the other side of Lancaster Gate underground station, are large and beautiful fountains, the Italian Fountains, often used for fashion photography shoots and movie locations, and used to film a scene of the box office success Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the sequel to Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Nearest tube:
Lancaster Gate and Queensway - Central Line
Bayswater - District Line
High Street Kensington - Circle and District Lines
ALBERT MEMORIAL
It's a monument in Kensington Gardens, standing near the southern boundary of the park, between Alexandra Gate and Queen's Gate, just north of the Royal Albert Hall.The memorial honours Prince Albert (who died in 1861), consort of Queen Victoria. It was designed shortly after Albert's death by George Gilbert Scott (who was knighted for his work) and completed in 1872, although the central statue of Prince Albert was not placed upon it until 1876. The monument stands 175 feet (53 metres) high and is graced with scores of statues and sculpted figures that are, in scale, somewhat larger than life. It underwent major restoration work in the 1990s.
ROYAL ALBERT HALL
The actual name in full is ROYAL ALBERT HALL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. It's one of Britain's principal concert halls and major landmarks, located south of the Albert Memorial and north of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Designated a memorial to Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, the immense oval structure was built in 1867-71. Sir George Gilbert Scott drew up architectural plans in the early 1860s, but his building was never begun owing to a lack of funding. Sir Henry Cole, chairman of the Society of Arts, subsequently arranged financing, partly through the offering of 999-year leases on choice seats, and new designs by Francis Fowke were approved in 1865. Henry Darracott Scott assumed architectural responsibility after Fowke's death later that year, and the foundation stone was laid in 1867.The hall was long notorious for its poor acoustics--especially its echo--but they were improved by modifications made in the late 1960s. Classical and popular music concerts, sports events, balls, and festivals take place at the hall. It seats more than 5,000 but held a record audience of 9,000 in 1906 for a gramophone (phonograph) concert. Today the hall is the London home of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and it is the venue of the annual "Proms" (Sir Henry Wood Promenade Concerts), sponsored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC to you and me).
London, Thursday 28th August 2008