Episode 1 of Our London Travel Series
London is such a vast and vibrant city that a single visit can hardly reveal all its layers. You can tick off the iconic landmarks, feel the pulse of the metropolis, walk across its famous bridges and wander through its historic streets — but to discover the quieter corners, to understand its rhythm, and to enjoy it at your own pace, you need more time. We explored London in two separate trips, each packed with long days and countless impressions. We saw a lot, yet it still feels like there is more waiting for us. And we hope that one day we’ll return.
To avoid getting lost in the sheer amount of photos and memories, I decided to divide our London story into several episodes. And the first one has to be about the parks. Because no matter how much you expect London to be about museums, monuments, and busy streets, its parks are the places that surprise you the most. They are many, they are diverse, they are beautiful — and they are, in their own way, where the city breathes.
In these green spaces, London slows down. People read, run, walk their dogs, sit quietly on benches, or simply pause for a moment of calm. And if you venture a little farther from the center, you reach Richmond Park, the largest park in London, a world of its own with free-roaming deer and landscapes that seem endless.
We stayed mostly in central London, where the parks feel like green islands between buildings, each with its own personality. If you start at Tower Bridge and follow the Thames, you pass through small, peaceful parks like Potters Fields Park, with its perfect view of the bridge. From there, through narrow streets, you reach Leathermarket Gardens — a quiet corner hidden between old brick buildings — and then Jubilee Gardens, modern and open, with the London Eye rising above it.
A little farther lies Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, home to the Imperial War Museum, and if you continue west you arrive at Battersea Park, a large and varied park with lakes, long paths, and sports areas, perfect for a slow afternoon.
Across the river, Hyde Park welcomes you with its wide lawns and open skies — one of the most famous parks in London, where locals run in the morning, cycle along the paths, or relax on the grass on sunny days. Right next to it, yet with its own identity, Kensington Gardens stretches quietly with elegant avenues, statues, small lakes, and Kensington Palace tucked among the trees.
A bit further west is Holland Park, perhaps the most intimate of the central parks, home to the Kyoto Garden — a Japanese oasis with waterfalls, bridges, and peacocks wandering freely.
Around Buckingham Palace, St James’s Park is arguably the most elegant of them all, with its lake, its famous pelicans, and its postcard-perfect views of the palace. Next to it, The Green Park is simple — just grass and trees — but that simplicity makes it wonderfully peaceful.
Then comes Regent’s Park, with its immaculate gardens, symmetrical paths, and aristocratic atmosphere. Closer to the British Museum, Russell Square offers a quiet, academic feel in the heart of Bloomsbury. Near St Paul’s Cathedral, a small, well-kept garden invites you to rest for a few minutes, and around the Tower of London a green space softens the medieval stone walls.
This is how we discovered London’s parks: as places where the city changes its rhythm, where the noise fades, and where, for a moment, everything feels simpler. Each park has its own character, its own way of welcoming you, its own way of staying with you.
This is the first episode of London — the episode of parks, of quiet corners, and of the city’s deep breath. In the next chapter, we’ll step into another world of this fascinating metropolis.
Leave a Reply