Hyde Park and why it is one of the best open green spaces in London
Even if you have never been to London in your entire life, chances are that you are well acquainted with the names of at least several of England’s capital major landmarks. Among those certainly Hyde Park is featured too. The name has become somewhat of a synonymous with large scale urban open green spaces, right next to Central Park in New York.
Naturally, many reasons lay the foundation of Hyde Park’s popularity. Why is this place so hugely popular, while other pretty nice parks — there are hundreds of them across London alone — are not so famous? There are two main reasons. Firsts comes the location, and then the size.
Hyde Park is so near the ideal centre of London that one has to wonder how such an extensive territory has been designated for the purpose it serves in the plan of the capital. It is among the eight original Royal Parks in the city. Originally, those lands were in possession of the Royal Family and served as spots for recreational activities for its members. Hunting was naturally the most popular of those activities. In later years the Royal Parks lost their primary function, but still remain something like the royalty among the parks in London. Hyde Park in its own right was the brain child of King Henry VIII who commissioned its creation in 1536. The manor which was on the territory before that was in possession by the Westminster Abbey. A century and a half later Hyde Park was further extended by William III, and since then it has become one of the biggest and most celebrated parks not only in the capital, but also in the whole empire.
The amount of important events that have taken place here, and actually continue to take place in Hyde Park is overwhelming in every sense of the word. Indisputably the most important among those events took place in 1851. That is the year of the first Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. It took place between 1 May and 11 October that year in the Crystal Palace — a structure built specifically for the purpose in Hyde Park. It name stems from the fact that a large portion of the construction was made out of glass. The Exhibition, which began the tradition of other such events which were pivotal for the Western World in the latter half of the 19th century was organized by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, and took place entire in the park. It included a great number of exhibits — over 13 000, such as The American Cup Yachting event, a showcase of world’s first voting machine, the first single-cast iron frame for a piano, the precursor’s of the modern day fax machine, an exhibit on ancient Egyptian art and culture and so on and so forth. For nearly half a year, the world was concentrated in the Crystal Palace, e.g. in Hyde Park, making it the most important and definitely the most fascinating place to be. For nearly a century later the Crystal Palace remained one of the most distinguished among the London’s landmarks, until, in the Interwar period, the building was burnt down to the ground after a great fire.
But the fame and fortune of Hyde Park endures up to this day.
One cannot miss to contemplate the greatness of the park from the entrance. The Grand Entrance, which was built in 1824–25 consists of fluted Ionic columns and certainly lives up to its name. In addition to the usual for such a place features like walking paths, lots of trees and fields used for sports and recreational activities, Hyde Park has a number of special features that contribute to maintaining its high status in the society and the urban landscape. Naturally, the most important among them is the famous Speakers’ Corner.
The Speakers’ Corner is the place in London to be if you want to see what a fully fleshed open air public speaking or a debate looks like. It is located in the north east corner of Hyde Park. Like with the Great Exhibit, the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park is the first of its kind in the history of Britain, and after its rise to popularity, other such places were crated all over the country and the world too. The idea behind the place is that debates on any subjects are allowed here. There is a popular misconception that the speakers in those places are immune from apprehension by the police in cases when their speeches are not following the law. The truth is that they are not, but rather the police tends to be much more tolerant and intervenes only in cases when there is an official complaint made. Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner is mainly famous for the venue of some of the largest protests in British History. A fairly notable such protest took place in 1855 — according to Karl Marx, 200 000 strong came out in Hyde Park to show opposition against Robert Grosvenor’s attempt to ban Sunday trading — which coincidentally meant that the pubs were also to remain closed on Sundays.
The central location of Hyde Park comes to cause one more trend that increases the status of the area above other green spaces in the capital. The residential and commercial streets around Hyde Park are, without question among the most desirable territories in London. For example, the Beatles’ Apple Inc. headquarters are overlooking Hyde Park from Mayfair. Other corporations and companies have their offices have or do everything to establish them in the area — ask whichever London office removal company and they will tell you exactly that. The prices for residential properties in the area are pretty high — both for buying and for rent. But, as we have already had the chance to explain at length — every penny is going to be worth it, because you will have the chance to live and work in one of the best places in London, one that has been on the leading position for nearly two centuries now.
