London's Royal Parks by Paul Rabbitts

Author:Paul Rabbitts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: London’s Royal Parks
ISBN: 9780747814719
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

An entrance to Kensington Palace and Gardens during the Regency, attributed to Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia.

George II outlived Caroline by twenty-three years and Kensington gradually declined, although the gardens were kept in reasonable order. He died in 1760 and was the last reigning monarch who resided at Kensington. His successor, George III, lived at St James’s Palace and was in the process of buying Buckingham House. By the nineteenth century Kensington Gardens were opened daily to the ‘respectably dressed’.

Queen Caroline’s mount was levelled, the ha-ha gradually filled in and ornamental trees and shrubs planted on the west bank of the Long Water, but most significant was the laying out of the Flower Walk, which stretches for nearly a mile and was a sight to behold. Sheep were brought in to impart a sense of rural tranquillity. However, London was growing at such a phenomenal rate that developers were beginning to run out of building sites around Hyde Park, began to move westwards to the environs of Kensington Gardens. In the 1840s a number of sites along the western boundary of the palace were leased for villas; these were significant buildings, now mainly embassies, with a very grand private road lined with noble trees. These villas brought a whole new community of extremely rich tenants who soon pressed for and obtained special privileges, including private entrances to the Gardens, ultimately leading to the replacement of the old walls with open iron railings. Development continued around Kensington in the south and along the Bayswater Road in the north with new squares, terraces and crescents and new shopping areas along Kensington High Street and in Notting Hill Gate.

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