Green Park

Green Park covers just over {{convert|40|acre|ha}}{{cite web |url=https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park/ |title=The Green Park |publisher=The Royal Parks |access-date=2018-12-02 |archive-date=7 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707162933/http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park |url-status=dead }} between Hyde Park and St. James's Park. Together with Kensington Gardens and the gardens of Buckingham Palace, these parks form an almost unbroken stretch of tended green land. This combined parkland is mostly bounded on the four cardinal compass points by Horse Guards Parade or adjoining Downing Street (east); the Victoria/Belgravia district (south); Kensington and Notting Hill (west) and St James's, Mayfair and Bayswater (north).

In contrast with its neighbouring parks, Green Park has no lakes, no buildings, no playgrounds and three, early yet distinctive post-war-era public monuments:

• The Canada Memorial by Pierre Granche
• The Diana of the Treetops Fountain by Estcourt J Clack, by the park's eponymous tube station{{Cite web|url=http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/blog/01042018100849-e-j-clack-to-move-centre-stage-at-green-park-station/|title=E J Clack to Move Centre Stage at Green Park Station|website=www.peterberthoud.co.uk|access-date=2020-01-08}}
• The RAF Bomber Command Memorial by Philip Jackson in a hardscaped road apex (sometimes considered Hyde Park Corner, facing it).

The park consists almost entirely of mature trees rising out of turf; the only flowers are naturalised narcissus.

The park is bounded on the south by Constitution Hill, on the east by the pedestrian Queen's Walk, and on the north by Piccadilly. It meets St. James's Park at Queen's Gardens with the Victoria Memorial at its centre, opposite the entrance to Buckingham Palace. To the south is the ceremonial avenue of the Mall, and the buildings of St James's Palace and Clarence House overlook the park to the east. Green Park Underground station has platforms of the Piccadilly, Victoria and Jubilee lines. It is by the north end of Queen's Walk. Tyburn stream runs beneath Green Park.{{Cite web |url=https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park/ |title=Royal Parks website: The Green Park |access-date=5 May 2015 |archive-date=7 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707162933/http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park |url-status=dead }}

In 2016 one acre of the park near the Bomber Command Memorial was designated as the 90th Coronation Meadow, named The Queen's Meadow, and established as a wildflower meadow using seed taken from ancient meadows at Horsenden Meadow in Ealing, and Valebridge Common in West Sussex.{{cite web |title=Prince Charles visits The Green Park to help create the 90th new Coronation Meadow |url=https://www.royalparks.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/prince-charles-visits-the-green-park-to-help-create-the-90th-new-coronation-meadow |website=The Royal Parks |access-date=19 January 2021 |language=en |date=6 September 2016 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128035559/https://www.royalparks.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/prince-charles-visits-the-green-park-to-help-create-the-90th-new-coronation-meadow |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Green Park, London |url=https://www.britainexpress.com/London/green-park.htm |website=Britain Express |access-date=19 January 2021 |language=en}} In 2017 a wide range of flowers were reported such as yellow rattle and common poppy.{{cite web |title=The Queen's Meadow in bloom |url=https://coronationmeadows.org.uk/post/the-queens-meadow-in-bloom |website= |publisher=Coronation Meadows |access-date=19 January 2021 |date=27 July 2017}}

{{See also|Tyburn (stream)|Great Conduit}}

The park is said to have in been for many medieval years a swampy burial ground for lepers from the hospital at St James's on its north side. It was first enclosed in the 16th century to be part of the estate of Poulteney family. It was then, as probably earlier too, partly excavated for the sand for the mortar for brickwork and stone building elements. In 1668, this part of "the Poulteney estate", the "Sandpit Field", was surrendered to Charles II, who made the bulk of the land into a Royal Park as "Upper St James's Park" and enclosed it with a brick wall.'The Bailiwick of St. James', Survey of London: volumes 29 and 30: St James Westminster, Part 1 (1960), pp. 21–28. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40542. Date accessed: 29 January 2008. He laid out its main walks and built an icehouse to supply the household with ice for cooling drinks in summer.

In 1746, Upper St. James's Park was officially renamed The Green Park. The park was an open meadow with few flowers at the time but this state may arise from a feud between Charles II of England and his Queen Consort, Catherine of Braganza. The oral history says the Queen discovered Charles had picked flowers in the park for another woman. In revenge, the Queen ordered that every single flower in the park should be pulled up and no more planted.{{cite book|author=Paul Rabbitts|title=London's Royal Parks The Postcard Collection|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4jMqDwAAQBAJ|date=15 June 2017|publisher=Amberley Publishing|isbn=978-1-4456-7315-8}}

The Queen's Walk was laid out for George II's queen Caroline; it led to the reservoir that held drinking water for St James's Palace, called the Queen's Basin.{{cite web | url = https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park/about-green-park/landscape-history | title = Landscape History – Green Park – The Royal favourite | publisher = The Royal Parks | access-date = 1 June 2015 | archive-date = 21 March 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150321105235/https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park/about-green-park/landscape-history | url-status = dead }}

Until a few decades later the park was on the outskirts of London; it was dark and somewhat semi-rural. It was known as a haunt of highwaymen and thieves. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was a popular place for ballooning attempts and public firework displays; Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks was composed specifically for a fireworks celebration held in The Green Park in 1749."Fireworks Music" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Michael Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2007. The park was also known as a duelling ground; one particularly notorious one being in 1730 between William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath and John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol.London: what to see, and how to see it, p. 61. H.G. Clarke, 1862.

In 1820, John Nash landscaped the park, as an adjunct to St James's Park.{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/st-jamess-park/about-st-jamess-park/landscape-history|title=Landscape History|website=The Royal Parks|language=en|access-date=2018-10-09|archive-date=22 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522072014/https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/st-jamess-park/about-st-jamess-park/landscape-history|url-status=dead}} On 10 June 1840, it was the scene of Edward Oxford's assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, on Constitution Hill.

File:Green Park, London, England and Constitution Hill.jpg|Green Park and Constitution Hill

File:Green Park, London, England.jpg|Green Park, London

File:Canada Gate - Green Park, London England.jpg|Canada Gate on the south side of the park

File:Canada Memorial - war memorial in Green Park, London - Pierre Granche.jpg|Pierre Granche's Canada Memorial in Green Park, London, near Buckingham Palace

File:Green Park and St. James's Park London from 1833 Schmollinger map.jpg|Green Park and St. James's Park c.1833

File:BuckinghamPalaceGreenPark.jpg|Buckingham Palace, as seen from Green Park

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Green Park, London|Green Park}}

• {{Official website|https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park/}}
• [http://virtual-journeys.com/en/united-kingdom/london/green-park Virtual journey into Green Park]

{{Parks and open spaces in London}}

{{London landmarks}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:16th-century establishments in England

Category:Protected areas established in the 16th century

Category:Royal Parks of London

Category:Parks and open spaces in the City of Westminster

Category:Piccadilly

Category:Charles II of England

Category:Catherine of Braganza

Category:Caroline of Ansbach

Category:Queen Victoria