The Regent's Park

We'd been into or through any number of parks and gardens in our month here. It's difficult to go anywhere on foot, as we often are, without encountering one. But we wanted to spend some time exploring one of the major parks, and for this day chose The Regent's Park, perhaps a mile away. It goes back to the early 19th century and is home to a number of special gardens as well as the London Zoo. After doing southern Africa a few years ago, we're sort of over zoos, so we focused on the gardens, particularly Queen Mary's Rose Garden, one of the largest we've seen. 12,000 varieties. The Regent's Park was a gift of the Prince Regent, later George IV, of a former royal hunting preserve, to developers in a deal that would make everyone happy and wealthy. The Prince Regent backed out eventually, but the developers hung on, adding great mansions and terraces around the enormous park for their wealthy friends to buy. And the rest is history. But it's a really huge and nice park, there now for the enjoyment of all. It is astonishingly well kept and well used by the people.

Passing by the Royal Academy of Music: if only
I'd practiced more

Helpful map of the Park: many gardens, water features, outdoor
theater, the zoo, boulevards and trails throughout; not quite as
large as Rhode Island

Usual Royal gate

So as I said, we wanted to concentrate on the Queen's Rose
Gardens, since we had just the one day; I doubt that we saw
all 12,000 varieties; despite it's being August already, however,
they were in wonderfully good flowering condition; every bed
was labeled

Nice soothing water features all around

"Singing in the rain"...they must sing a lot here

Lots of topiary too

Purveyors to the Queen's Gardens....

Yes! Bananas!

Among the many boulevards

After seeing enough roses and water features we spent a while 
looking at some of the Georgian terrace buildings that ring around
the Park and which financed it; even now they are sought-after
properties

Mysteriously, my camera had switched over to the faded Kodachrome
look; perhaps not inappropriately

Good fences make good neighbors, particularly if the spikes are
large and sharp enough

More mews; with the advent of the automobile, no mews became
good mews...

Park Crescent

Walking back home past one of London's less
popular landmarks