There are a number of Royal Parks scattered around London and they include Regents Park and Hyde Park. However, the original royal park was St James’s Park and it has several interesting points during its history. It is no surprise that it is within the St James’s area of London, but where did it first get its name. In fact, it is named after the St James’s Hospital which was on the site now occupied by St James’s Palace.
The hospital catered to women suffering from leprosy which was at the time, a disease that was feared and victims were often ostracised. Originally, this area and that of Westminster was very marshy. The Tyburn river flowed through the area. It took Henry VIII to take an interest in it. He purchased the land in 1532 and ordered that it be drained and then landscaped. Four years later, he had St James’s Palace built for him. He had ideas for this new land acquisition; he had it as a nursery for his deer. You see, at this time, there was basically just forest and grassland stretching north of St James’s as far as Hampstead Heath.
That is how things remained until the reign of James I. He began to have the area relandscaped into more of a park. He was obviously interested in wildlife as he not only had a large aviary which is now remembered as Birdcage Walk, but he also installed crocodiles and an elephant in his new park. Makes a change from feeding the ducks! Over the years and various monarchs, it had a number of uses including King Charles entertaining his mistress Nell Gwynne there. Perhaps they picked flowers there? Charles was also the first to open the park up to commoners.
Today, St James’s Park is bounded by The Mall, Birdcage Walk, Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards. In the centre of the park is the lake. It was remodelled in 1827 from an existing stretch of water called the Canal. It is famous for its pelicans who were a gift to the people from the Russian Ambassador in 1664. About halfway along the lake is a footbridge. The view of the park and Buckingham Palace from there is well worth a visit. And the bridge itself has featured in a number of movies including where spies have met and exchanged information. There are reports that this has also happened in real life. So, if you should ever see James Bond, 007 in the park, you’ll know why!
John Pullen 