A nice Long Walk - Our last day in London before setting off for Paris.

It’s Boxing Day and the sun is shining, most tourist sites are closed, however, the shops are open for the boxing say Sales, that didn’t appeal, where to go? Well the other day we went for a walk in Kensington Gardens and today we decided to take the Broadwalk through the gardens to the end and see what was there. The maps tell us that the Royal Albert Hall is opposite the Gardens and there are a number of museums within walking distance from there.

The Gardens on a sunny, albeit chilly, Sunday morning attract quite a number of people strolling, running, feeding the swans at the Round Pond and of course walking the dog. It didn’t take us very long to walk the length of the Broadwalk, past Kensington Palace and the Round Pond. Along the way we stopped to take photos of commemorative plaques in the path dedicated to Princess Dianna and marking the Dianna, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, the first of these reads Dial Walk, St Govers Well and I wondered whether it might mark the spot of an ancient water spring. I remember reading that there were several ancient natural springs throughout London, long since covered with buildings but marked in the naming of the area, for instance Saddlers Wells. Could St Grovers Well be one of these?

The Round Pond, Kensington Gardens Boxing Day 2010

Princess Diana Memorial Walk

Through the gates that marked the boundary of the Gardens, we walked out onto Kensington Road, turning left and walking towards Hyde Park, we passed a little cabin structure on the roadside it was a cabman’s shelter and reminded me of a gypsy caravan. There was some ivy growing along the fence it had ice crystals on it and looked so pretty. We spotted the Albert Hall up ahead of us, an impressive round building in red brick, adjacent to this was the ugliest modern building you could imagine accentuated because the buildings around it were of another era and most were graceful or at least charming. I was surprised to discover that the ugly building was in fact the Royal College of Art, in my opinion there was nothing artistic about it. It was completely uninspiring. On the other hand The Royal Albert Hall is something to behold. Ringed around the top just below where the domed roof meets the walls of the building, a frieze of classical figures decorate the circumference, in the Greek style, paying homage to the arts. There are arched windows on the next level down, with tall rectangular windows between these and street level, where the windows are fewer, smaller and nondescript and sculpted decorations decorate the spaces between these smaller windows. There is also a balustraded balcony running around the building between the frieze and the domed windows, with access doors every 4 metres or so. A large portico marked the front entrance and reached up to meet the balcony.

The Cabman's shelter

Frost on ivy

The Royal Albert Hall

Detail, Royal Albert Hall

One of the ornate entrance gates to the Gardens

Deer on gate post

There are several entrances to the Gardens, sporting some very impressive gates with decorative embellishments some really ornate, complete with sculptures depicting wildlife, especially deer. We passed the huge gilded monument to Prince Albert, the paths were iced up around it on this side too just as they were on the opposite side when we saw it a few days ago. This is where we left the Gardens precinct, crossing the road to get a closer look at the royal Albert Hall, we skirted its walls noting that the buildings around were of similar coloured brick and looked to be apartments very expensive and exclusive looking. On the far side of the Albert Hall and down a very impressive, balustraded set of stairs we faced the red brick Royal college of Music.

Expensive flats near Albert Hall

The Royal college of Music

We ventured further on; by now I’d got it in my mind that I wanted to find the Victoria and Albert Museum and I was quietly confident we were heading in the right direction. The small pocket map we had with us cut out just before the area we were now exploring, so we were flying blind, so to speak. We found our way to Exhibition Road, now that sounded familiar! There were road works closing one side of the road and, as it turned out they ran along in front of the Victoria and Albert museum which was across the road just up ahead of us! We kept walking and on our side of the road we came upon the side boundary of the Natural History Museum. There was an ice skating rink set up in the front grounds, with a small carnival alongside. As we walked around the corner the full impact of the old building hit us. It is the most amazing building, very beautiful, there are carvings of animals along the upper storeys some are recognisable others are either imaginary or extinct; I was absolutely fascinated with this building and of course tried to photograph every sculpted animal decorating the building’s façade and on the pillars along the fence as well!

The Skating Rink at the Natural History Museum 

The front facade of the Museum of Natural History

One of the pre-historic creatures that adorns the building at the Museum of Natural History, London

During our walk, from beginning to end, there seemed to be an endless procession of planes flying by, leaving long trails of white streaming in the cold air behind them. We assumed from this that flights are back to normal after the last weeks cancellations and delays caused by the heavy snow we had while we were still in Oxford.

We had walked several blocks down and turned back now towards of Kensington Gardens, deciding to walk along to see where the Gardens met Hyde Park. There is actually a road that divides the two, this is not obvious on most of the maps we have. We followed the road down to the bridge that crosses the Serpentine and I took photos from there of Kensington gardens on one side and Hyde Park on the other. While on the bridge we noticed a young woman on a horse coming out of Hyde Park she stuck her hand out at the traffic, as if hailing a bus, but in fact she was stopping the traffic in order to cross! Apparently horses have right of way.

Looking over Hyde Park from the road over the Serpentine

Horses have right of way in the Park

icy waters of the Serpentine

Heading back into Kensington Gardens we made our way along beside the Serpentine to find Peter Pan’s statue, the path was iced over completely in parts and we had to walk very carefully never taking our eyes off the path on these icy stretches, lest we lose our footing and end up slipping over. We stuck close to the fence here just in case. Along the way I spotted a pretty little bird in the bushes, it looked like a robin, but Michael said he thought they were deeper red on the breast than this one was. It was sort of more orange than red, anyway it was very sweet. As I stopped to get a photo, I was once again accosted by a squirrel, he ran out of the bushes right up to me, I thought he was going to run right up my legs as if I was a tree!!

The Peter Pan statue across the path from the Serpentine

We think this is a Robin

Ithought this fellow had mistaken me for a tree!

Almost at the end of the walk in the gardens we approached an area that marked the end of the Serpentine, there was balustrading and urns on plinths and what looked like a pavilion at the far end, all very classical looking. As we drew closer I could see that it was actually a series of fountains, not flowing now as the water around them was frozen. There standing with his owner was a Samoyed quite lovely with his pal, a black dog with a Frisbee type toy in his mouth just begging for someone to throw it for him, I think he was a Labrador I just had to get a photo of the Samoyed for Holly.

the Samoyed and....

his buddy, who wanted to play!

The fountain that wasn't working.

 By the time we left the park it was almost 2.30, we had been walking since 11am and were now ready for lunch, so made for the closest pub. It was closed so we walked a bit further along to our local, The Black Lion for a feed of fish and chips and mushy peas. So ended our Boxing Day  foray into the great green space that is Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park and its surrounding streets.