Regent?s Park and Primrose Hill

by Sheppard, Martin; Lousada, Sandra

• ISBN13: 9780711225985
• ISBN10: 0711225982
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-01
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Summary

It is London's good fortune to have several parks near its centre, green oases in the middle of the city. This book explores two of the best loved of these parks, Regent's Park and Primrose Hill. Regent's Park was created in the early nineteenth century as part of the most interesting exercise in town planning in British history. As well as the elegant teraces devised by architect John Nash, it includes grassland, woodland, wetland, gardens, a lake, a canal, the Open Air Theatre - and London Zoo. Primrose Hill, with its superb views over London, was added to Regent's Park, as a separate but linked park, in 1842. The two parks are home to a remarkable range of animal and bird life, and are used and loved by millions of Londoners and visitors to London. In this book Martin Sheppard traces the history of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill and describes their architecture and their life. Sandra Lousada's superb photographs reveal the parks in every aspect.

Excerpts

IntroductionLondon has six royal parks in or near its centre, green oases in the middle of the city. Two of these parks are relatively small. St James's Park and Green Park lie at the heart of the British establishment, divided from each other only by The Mall and bordered by Whitehall, St James's Palace and Buckingham Palace. Hyde Park is much larger. A royal park from the time of the Reformation, it was opened to the public by Charles I in 1637 and became the favourite parade for fashionable society. To its west, Kensington Gardens was laid out in the years after 1720. These parks, added to the much older park around the royal palace of Greenwich dating from 1433, were established before London had begun most of its massive outward growth. The sixth of the inner city's royal parks, The Regent's Park, was not created until the early nineteenth century, when the tide of building started to burst London's boundaries. Its principal architect was John Nash, who linked the park, via the new artery of Regent's Street, to St James's Park and Westminster. Named after the Prince Regent, Regent's Park was part of the greatest exercise in town planning in British history. To its immediate north, Primrose Hill, with its suprb views over London, was added as a separate but integrally linked park in 18421. A Royal ParkIn 1526 Henry VIII fell in love with Anne Boleyn. Anne's insistence on being queen rather than just the king's mistress, and the unwillingness of Pope Clement VII to sanction the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, led to England's break with Rome and to the English Reformation. By it Henry gained not only his divorce, and Anne, but also the entire lands and property of the monasteries. Among the monastic lands was an estate, belonging to Westminster Abbey, which became Hyde Park. Another, in the manor of Tyburn, which had belonged to Barking Abbey since before the Norman Conquest, became the core of Marylebone Park. Nearly three hundred years later, this in turn became Regent's Park.Marylebone Park, a roughly circular area of 554 acres not based on previous manorial boundaries, which also included land taken or bought from other owners, offered Henry the convenience of a hunting park near to London. Established in 1538, it took its name from St Mary le Bourne, a church by the River Tyburn in the village of Marybone or Marylebone. The new park's land was part of the ancient Middlesex Forest, lying mainly on clay and at a distance from both London and Westminster. The difficulties of draining the land, and of water supply, meant that it had always been lightly inhabited.The park was soon surrounded by a ring mound, later topped with fencing, to keep in the deer to be hunted for the king's pleasure, with ponds dug along the Tyburn for them to drink at and lodges for their keepers. In its south, near the church, was a manor house. Henry's successors, including Elizabeth I, his daughter by Anne Boleyn, continued to use Marylebone Park for hunting, as did James I, the first Stuart king of England, a passionate huntsman. James's son, Charles I, was less interested in hunting. From 1640, moreover, Charles was preoccupied with political problems, his dispute with the Long Parliament culminating in the English Civil War.Desperate to raise money for the war, Charles granted the lease on the park to two of his supporters, Sir George Strode and John Wandesford, in return for gunpowder; but Parliament's hold on London prevented them from enjoying the lease and Charles's defeat led to their exile. Following Charles's execution, on 30 January 1649, the monarchy was abolished and all royal assets, including Charles's lands (and his superb art collection), were confiscated and sold. Marylebone Park, which containeD three lodges, a hunting stand, stables and orchards, as well as 124 deer and 16,297 trees, predominantly oak, ash, elm, whitethorn and maple, was sold off by sealed tender, for £13,215 6s. 8d., to pay off the arrears of the parliamentary regiments. Almost half of it came into the hands of the cavalry commander and regicide Colonel Thomas Harrison. Uncertain of the future, he and the other new owners made sure of an immediate profit by letting the land in small parcels and by wholesale tree felling. While most of the timber was sold for private gain, 2805 trees in the park were reserved for Cromwell's active and highly successful navy. In 1651, the deer were moved to St James's Park.On his Restoration in 1660, Charles II granted the lease of Marylebone Park to one of his supporters in exile, Sir Henry Bennett, later the Earl of Arlington, and Strode and Wandesford were grudgingly compensated. Eight years later, it was disparked, ending its status as a hunting preserve. For the next 150 years the park was used as farmland, the main leases passing between a series of aristocrats and bankers who let the land to tenant farmers.