Initially I was unsure on where I was going to do my work however, I finally settled on the areas surrounding Hyde Park. This is an area of London I have become familiar with over the year and a half of living here so I felt it necessary to use at as the site for my walk, allowing me to investigate the area much more than I have the previous times I have travelled through it.
I got off the number 9 bus just outside the northern entrance to Green Park to begin my walk. It does not take long for me to understand how much I have missed when walking previously when my focus has only been to get from one place to another. Adjacent to the Bus stop I have just arrived at was a large wooden bench, owing to the plaque on the front of the bench and some further research it transpires that is a porter’s rest, benches that could once be found all over London’s main routes allowing Porters to rest heavy loads at shoulder height to save them from picking them up from the ground after short breaks. Despite this porters’ benches once lining the main routes all across London this one on the edge of piccadilly is the only surviving one in London.
I then began to head west shortly arriving at wellington arch, with it being the most visual centre piece of Hyde Park corner and sitting between Green Park and Hyde Park it proves to be a useful landmark in allowing me to get my bearings on a number of occasions throughout the evening. It was here that I ate my lunch, observing the array of people using Hyde Park corner as a thorough fair, many appeared to be tourists exiting the underground station and heading in the direction of Buckingham Palace, while the majority did appear to be visitors taking a pit stop at Hyde Park corner to photograph Wellington Arch and surrounding war memorials before assumingly continuing to the far more famous attraction of Buckingham palace. However, not all those that were present at Hyde Park corner were tourists, a large number of construction workers from many of the surrounding building sites were using the benches as a place to take a break while those that seemed to be more formally dressed headed towards the areas of Westminster or Mayfair.
Hyde Park corner and its surrounding area has become well known for its large number of war memorials; however it was not until I had decided to do my walk around this area that I appreciated how many there actually were from more contemporary instalments such as the huge RAF Bomber Command Memorial erected in 2012 and the Memorial Gates, constructed ‘in memory of the five million volunteers from the Indian-subcontinent, Africa and the Caribbean who fought with Britain in the two World Wars.’ Through to the post World War One Royal Artillery Monument completed in 1925.
After leaving Hyde Park corner I continued South towards, the city of Westminster following the western border of Green Park, it was here where I noticed the biggest change in the environment, with Belgravia bordering green park and my route now taking me vertically along its border, large terraced houses towered over the road,each with a different nations flag flying above its entrance, I now know after wandering through its streets that it is the site of a majority of international embassies in London. Dozens of embassies packed into just a few streets, cars with diplomatic plates and security on the doors of many of these buildings it became clear that despite only walking a few minutes south of the busy Hyde Park corner these streets were a large contrast from the tourist saturated parks and monuments I had just come from.
It was here that I decided to loop back round along the southern border of Green Park and head towards piccadilly, passing Buckingham palace and using the Mall for a short distance in-between Green Park and St James’s Park before heading back north. With this being the site of two royal residences; St James’s Palace and Clarence House, the latter being the current residence of King Charles III, police presence was very high and armed officers stood on each entrance, with signs warning that trespass was illegal being displayed on every available fence post. With St James’s Palace being the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom with work being completed in 1536 for Henry VIII, it was interesting to see that it was still in use today by the royal family and while it is no longer occupied it still remains a working palace.
With the heavy police presence and the feeling that the officers were suspicious as to why someone had chosen the back of Clarence house to photograph as opposed to the more frequently photographed front of the property, I decided it was best to leave and continue my walk away from such sensitive sites. It was here that I began to realise that walking in urban areas can carry its own set of challenges and that observing such sites was not as easy as I first thought.
On the opposite side of the road overlooking St James’s Palace was the Queens chapel, a rather bland building in comparison to its neighbouring St James’sPalace and Marlborough House. But it was the chapels blandness in contrast to the surrounding building that made it so noticeable
It was beginning to get dark, and the streets were becoming much busier, commuters now outnumbered the tourists, and the pubs were beginning to fill, I thought it best to head to Green Park where my I could conclude my walk. Like many areas of London Hyde Park and its surrounding areas have two sides, one of a bustling tourist hotspot with families enjoying just one of the many parks London has to offer and another of large diplomatic buildings standing side by side with mansions.
Walking Through London's History 2022 