These Are The Parks In Our Neighborhood

London is not known as a particularly green city. But central London, it seemed to us, had green aplenty, from the huge public parks...Hyde, Green, St. James, Kensington, Regent's...down to the smaller (a city block) parks and gardens in every part of the old city. From our location on Handel St., in Bloomsbury, there were four such parks within two blocks' walk, one just five doors down the street. All were beautifully landscaped and cared for, with 200 year old plane trees and others and ample benches. All found abundant but respectful use by the people of the neighborhood. All had excellent signage about their histories and features. And all were quite different. [click to enlarge and read the signs]

The red dot is where we live: St. George's Gardens to the east,

Brunswick Square Gardens to the south, Regents Square to the 

northeast, and Bramber Green to the north...if I were to go out 

three blocks or so, there would be half a dozen more parks and 

gardens...

Five doors down Handel St.; was originally the cemetery for two
churches; by Victorian times it was "overcrowded" and disused
and was then converted to a public park; most of the tombstones
line the perimeter, but the larger monuments were left in place

A line of stones separated the two churches' burial ground; still
there

Shakespeare in St. George's Gardens, the third week we were
there

When you're a 70-something, sitting on the ground is not all
that appealing; but listening to the Elizabethan language through
the open windows was fun

Regent's Square Garden was the plainest; a heretical 18th
century Scottish preacher and his church were the main story,
but a V2 destroyed the church in February 1945; not rebuilt

Badly damaged...

Brunswick Square Garden was perhaps the largest; just the
other side of the Pharmacy School behind us

Famous for its former residents

But famous also for its giant plane tree, 2nd oldest and 2nd largest
in London 

Thus

Bramber Green, on our way to Kings Cross, was the most 
traditional park, to our American eyes

With a doggie run

Human exercise facilities

A kiddie play area; rare in our experience here

And some sculpture, which also served as a kiddie play area; it
was also a filming location for a forthcoming Netflix series, but,
alas, I didn't have my camera with me that day...