Central Parks

Our walk through London's central parks (not Regent's) starts at St James's. Probably the most cultivated of the capital's green spaces. James I's elephant is long gone. Replaced by innumerable water fowl.



Viewed from the bridge over the lake, the pinnacles and domes of Horse Guards look lie a Rhineish castle. A place full of sinister fairy tales. The buildings date from the 1750s but the ground was used much earlier than that for much the same purpose as now – the annual Trooping of the Colour and the daily Changing of the Guard. The jousting, which started under Henry VIII, no longer takes place!