Hyde Park
350 acres in the middle of Westminster where, since 1872, anyone can stand up and shout their politics.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk London offline.
Henry VIII carved it out as a hunting ground in 1536; Charles I opened it to the public in 1637. It held the 1851 Great Exhibition's Crystal Palace, and the Serpentine lake still splits it in two.
What to look for
- Rotten Row, the wide, straight gravel track running west from Hyde Park Corner, and possibly the first road in London lit at night. Its name may come from the French 'Route du roi,' one of several theories.
- Speakers' Corner, in the northeast by Marble Arch, a spot for open debate and protest since 1872.
- The bandstand, built in Kensington Gardens in 1869, moved here in 1886, and hosting up to three concerts a week by the 1890s.
Open daily 5 a.m.–midnight; nearest tubes: Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, Marble Arch, Lancaster Gate, and Queensway.
Hyde Park is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.