London Tourist Guide 🇬🇧 Hyde Park - Royal Albert Hall

The Hyde Park corner screen sits on a separate traffic island between Piccadilly Arcade and Hyde Park. It is a 33 metre wide gate with three arches connected by an ionic colonnade. The gate was designed in 1825 by Decimus Burton as an entrance to Hyde Park. Covering over 142 hectares, Hyde Park offers one of London's finest landscapes. About 900 years ago, the area belonged to the monks of Westminster Abbey. Many of the striking features visitors see today in Hyde Park were created in the 18th century by a keen royal gardener, Queen Caroline. She took almost 121 hectares from Hyde Park to form Kensington Gardens and then separated the two parks with a long ditch. Queen Caroline also established a new landscape fashion when she created a large lake called the Serpentine by damming the Westbourne Stream. At that time, artificial lakes were usually long and straight. One of the first created lakes in England that was designed to look natural, it was soon copied in parks and gardens all over the country. It would also serve as the centrepiece of festivities in 1814, celebrating the British victory at the Sea Battle of Trafalgar. Hyde Park offers a range of leisure activities, from informal games of frisbee to boating on the serpentine and horse riding. Influenced by a series of 13th century Eleanor crosses and other statues in Edinburgh and Manchester, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens is one of the grandest High Victorian Gothic extravaganzas anywhere. It celebrates Victorian achievement, as well as Prince Albert's passions and interests. All around the base of the memorial, the Parnassus frieze depicts celebrated painters, poets, sculptors, musicians and architects reflecting Albert's enthusiasm for the arts. Marble figures representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America stand at each corner of the memorial. Royal Albert Hall, part of the National Memorial to Prince Albert, is now one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world. The design of the building, constructed of red brick and terracotta, recalls the amphitheatres the Prince had seen on his visits to Europe.