I wish these tourists wouldn't stare at me!
The Television Gardener and raconteur, Alan Titchmarsh, once remarked that “They say gardening is the new sex. I preferred the old stuff.” I bore this thought in mind today when with the brief outburst of summer sunshine midst the rains of London it was time for me to womble into my favourite London Park, the Royal Park of St. James to record the summer bedding, the newly cleaned lake and the Royal allotment! It was also an opportunity to record the seasonal changes since my last visits in winter and in spring. The lake gets drained and cleaned about every 15 years and it is a major undertaking whilst ensuring the Pelicans and water fowl don’t go elsewhere so it is good that it is completed and the park is back to normal. The summer displays are always wonderful, particularly compared to my sad displays at home.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/blooming-june.html
How I admired the skill of the gardeners and cursed my green fingered mediocrity until one horrible morning when walking through the park I lost my innocence! For there in front of me were rows of trolleys with the summer bedding in peak condition ready to be planted and the spring bedding being dug out? Now that I knew their secret of how the beds always looked so wonderful I was reconciled to my own indolent efforts at home!
St. James’s Park is in fact one of 3 Royal Parks which provide the setting for Buckingham Palace, London’s great ceremonial avenue, The Mall, and the ceremonial parade ground of Horseguard’s Parade. The Green Park was originally a swampy burial ground for lepers; but by 1668, Charles II had enclosed it and stocked it with deer, again to indulge the regal passion for hunting. It was designed by the French landscape architect Le Notre and it is a “Green Park” as it has no flower beds. The third park is less well known; being the 32 acre enclosed walled garden of Buckingham Palace which contains another lake. We last visited St. James’s Park when it was covered in snow and then when it was in its spring glory where the flower beds tried to recreate the colourful displays of its designer John Nash.
Horseguard’s Parade from the park
Here is the park in winter;
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/london-snow.html
Here is the park in spring;
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/st-jamess-park-london.html
One excellent new summer feature for the past few years is the allotment to encourage people to renew their interests in allotments and grow their own vegetables and fruit and maybe even honey! The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in association with The Royal Parks ran a Dig for Victory allotment project in St James’s Park, London from May-September 2007. As many of you are aware, Dig for Victory was a WWII campaign to help combat food shortages by promoting the planting of allotments in gardens and on public land. The campaign reflected issues still relevant today, such as access to fresh healthy food, being active and living sustainably.
Dig for Victory!
You don't need a large garden to grow your own food. Lots of different fruit and veg will flourish in the smallest pots. So if you have a patio, balcony, window box or just a window sill you can enjoy the fun of producing healthy cheap food. The Royal Parks Allotment at St James's Park offers a wealth of inspiration for all the family. This year alongside the allotment and herb garden it will show you how to grow potatoes, salads, and greens in containers, raised beds and confined spaces. Experts are on hand to provide friendly advice and tips for the garden. It is good to see its progress and return again to observe the fascinating development during the season. Today it was certainly a popular attraction with the visitors book recording the “newly married” K. Patel’s from Leicester, Chelsea Pensioners and visitors from North Carolina and Malaysia. It is clear that many people are very suspicious of the food industry and want to take control of part of their own nutrition by growing their own food. As well as the nutritional benefits it is relaxing and saves money. Going back to its origins in the original “Dig for Victory” campaign it is worth noting that during WW11 when food was rationed and people eat less meat, sugars and fats nutritional health in the UK actually improved greatly – the moral here is “Less is more!”
With its royal, political and literary associations, St James's Park is at the very heart of London and covers 23 hectares (58 acres). With a lake harbouring ducks, geese and pelicans and in the centre of the lake is Duck Island is the home to many wild breeds of beautiful ducks and bird life.
There are many ducks; gulls; swans; geese; pelicans. Some rarer visitors are the golden eye, carrion crows, grey wagtail and shovelers. A popular spectacle for visitors is to watch the wildlife officers feeding the pelicans every day at 2:30pm. The stars of the feeding show are undoubtedly the gregarious pelicans who were introduced to the park as a gift by a Russian Ambassador in 1664.
Local inhabitants
St James's is also home to the Mall, the setting for many ceremonial parades and events of national celebration. St James's Park is the oldest Royal Park in London and is surrounded by three palaces. The most ancient is Westminster, which has now become the Houses of Parliament, St James's Palace and of course, the best known, Buckingham Palace.
Humans chillin...
Ducks chillin...
Pelicans chillin...
The Park was once a marshy water meadow. In the thirteenth century a leper hospital was founded, and it is from this hospital that the Park took its name. In 1532 Henry VIII acquired the site as yet another deer park and built the Palace of St James's. When Elizabeth I came to the throne she indulged her love of pageantry and pomp, and fetes of all kinds were held in the park. Her successor, James I, improved the drainage and controlled the water supply. A road was created in front of St James's Palace, approximately where the Mall is today, but it was Charles II who made dramatic changes. The Park was redesigned, with avenues of trees planted and lawns laid. The King opened the park to the public and was a frequent visitor, feeding the ducks and mingling with his subjects.
Duck Island
During the Hanoverian period, Horse Guards Parade was created by filling in one end of the long canal and was used first as a mustering ground and later for parades. Horse Guards Parade is still part of St James's Park. The Park changed forever when John Nash redesigned it in a more romantic style. The canal was transformed into a natural-looking lake and in 1837 the Ornithological Society of London presented some birds to the Park and erected a cottage for a bird keeper. Both the cottage and the position of bird keeper remain to this day. Clarence House was designed for the Duke of Clarence, later to become William IV and was also the home of the late Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
Outside Buckingham Palace is the Queen Victoria Memorial, which celebrates the days of the British Empire. The memorial includes not only the marble statue of Victoria and the glittering figures of Victory, Courage and Constancy, but also the ornamental gates given by the Dominions. These are the Australia Gate, South Africa Gate and Canada Gate.
Rear of Downing Street from the park
Another excellent feature of St. James’s Park is the restaurant run by Oliver Peyton and designed by Hopkins Architects (The Architects of a nearby Building of the Year – Westminster Tube Station) – the punningly named “Inn the Park” . Oliver is well known to the British Public as one of the judges on “The Great British Menu” programme on the telly but the lad actually hails from Sligo in the West of Ireland – as do Westlife but you can’t win them all! He owns several restaurants throughout London, which, over the years, have been as much applauded for their architectural achievements as their gastronomic standards.
Inn the Park
The Hopkins designed building is nestled in the 1828 Nash landscaped park, amongst the trees, on the edge of the lake. With such a beautiful and historic setting, Hopkins Architects set out to create a modern design that worked thoughtfully with the original intentions of Nash’s design and did not impose itself on the unspoiled urban oasis. The result is that from The Mall and most parts of the park the building blends invisibly into the rolling landscape. Whilst walking from Horse Guards Parade or Admiralty Arch it emerges; an elegant, wood-clad shelter with glazed frontage and roof top pathway looking across the lake to Duck Island and onwards as far as the London Eye.
Warm Austrian larch, contrasting with concrete and stainless steel, was chosen to reinforce the calm and timeless feeling of the historic park. The larch, from sustainably managed forests, forms the primary structure and envelope of the building and has been left untreated to gradually weather over time. Basically, the building is a one-story structure housing a restaurant and toilet facilities. A glass wall with sliding panels and a veranda overlook the adjacent lake. The whole of the project is beneath a grass roof that makes the building blend into the park.
Inside, the dining room is divided from the kitchen and take-away area by chunky white marble booths with black patterned leather banquettes. Chairs are constructed out of tubular polished stainless steel topped with patterned black or purple crocodile leather cushions, table tops are crafted out of burgundy stove enamel. The lighting is striking. The building design maximizes the use of natural light with three large holes bored through the roof flooding the back of the restaurant with daylight, whilst running the length of the room are suspended Tom Dixon’s impossible to miss mirrored lights. With the lights on, the larch wood floor and ceiling glows with a honeyed intensity.
Behind the marble partition, ‘grab & go’ food is displayed in elegant bronze refrigerators, whilst either side of a giant three-metre long grill, bountiful displays of freshly baked produce form impossibly precarious piles along a terrazzo counter.
Outside, the majority of the wooden terrace is covered and heated. Sturdy wire chairs replete with purple leather mock-croc cushions accompany marble topped tables. The far end of the terrace, open to the elements, looks up towards Buckingham Palace. A flight of steps at the end of the building leads to the grassed roof, where a wooden banquette follows the ‘swoop’ of the walkway, which extends Nash’s paths over the top of the building and down the other side. From here all visitors can enjoy the sublime views, the perfect vantage point for the daily Pelican feeding or a comfortable seat for reading a book and nibbling a sandwich. Overall the Inn the Park restaurant is a remarkable success and a most well mannered building but there again it is set in London’s most well mannered and loveliest park!
Swire Fountain
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