London Weekend Break

Regents Park

Regents Park can lay claim to being arguably London's most famous and equally London's most visited recreational park area. In total Regents Park covers approximately 410 acres with areas covering everything from ornamental gardens to recreational and sporting activities. The park encloses everything from playing fields to tennis courts and bowling greens.

With a grand total of almost 100 acres dedicated exclusively to sporting and recreational activity, Regents Park is without question the city’s single largest outdoor activity centre.

The main gardens

Although the sports fields within the park attract many visitors, Regents Park is also composed of widespread garden zones and flowers beds. The result of this is that, depending upon the time of year, you can see almost every type of flower and shrub imaginable.

The roses alone number over four hundred different hybrids and most of the flower beds are replanted to take account of the seasonal changes of the UK. The result is a park and gardens with ever changing features that combine traditional ornamental gardens with modernism and less conventional planting. You will also see different areas with different themes and styles of gardening.

Park history

Regents Park started its life as in the sixteenth century when it was the playground and hunting ground for the then Monarch, Henry VIII. At that time it was not called Regents Park and indeed it was also known as Marylebone Park at one time.

Over the years the park fell under the hands of many different owners, all from the elite classes, and for most of this time the park that we see today would have been unrecognisable.

Big changes took place under the reign of King George IV with design alterations by John Nash. Even so, the park was still in private ownership and was considered to be part of the King’s private residence.

John Nash made many large scale changes to the park and his detailed designs showed a lake, a canal and a grand royal residence. Significantly the parks name was also changed to Regents Park.

Ultimately, not all of John Nash’s ideas were realised and the palace was one notable and money saving exclusion. Despite this, the current park owes much of its design to Nash and many of his designs and ideas were developed.

The Municipal Regents Park and associated areas

It was in 1835 that some small sections of Regents Park were opened to the public. Since then an expansion of the municipal park areas has continued and the result is the enormous and varied park that we enjoy today. Within Regents Park as a whole you will find distinct areas including the Boating Lake, Cumberland Green, Clarence Bridge, the Pavilion, the Winter Gardens, Regents Canal, Marylebone Green and Queen Mary's gardens.

One of the attractions of Regents Park is London Zoo which has its entrance close to the parks canal. There is an entry fee for visitors to the zoo.

Throughout the year Regents Park hosts a number of outdoor events and festivals and these range from concerts and sporting activities to markets and events for school children. Additionally, the park has an open air theatre area and this is used for numerous performances of the arts in all its forms. Some of these performances are free.

For refreshments the park has its own Garden Cafe where visitors can sit down and relax, or pick up a drink and a snack and continue their exploration of the park.