   #copyright

Hyde Park, London

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Great
Britain

   The Serpentine, viewed from the eastern end
   Enlarge
   The Serpentine, viewed from the eastern end
   Royal Parks of London
     * Bushy Park
     * Green Park
     * Greenwich Park
     * Hyde Park
     * Kensington Gardens
     * Regent's Park
     * Richmond Park
     * St. James's Park

   Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London and one of the
   Royal Parks of London. The park is divided in two by the Serpentine
   Lake. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which is widely
   assumed to be part of Hyde Park, but is technically separate. Hyde Park
   is 350 acres (1.4 km²) and Kensington Gardens is 275 acres (1.1 km²)
   giving an overall area of 625 acres (2.5 km²).

   Hyde Park is also home to the New Zealand World War One memorial.

   The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the
   Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.

   The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The
   Chartists, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all
   held protests in the park.

   On July 20, 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs
   linked to the IRA caused the death of seven horses and eight members of
   the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets.

Grand Entrance

   The Grand Entrance to Hyde Park
   Enlarge
   The Grand Entrance to Hyde Park

   The Grand Entrance to the park, at Hyde Park Corner next to Apsley
   House, was erected from the designs of Decimus Burton. It consists of a
   screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, with three carriage entrance
   archways, two foot entrances, a lodge, etc. The extent of the whole
   frontage is about 107 ft (33 m). The central entrance has a bold
   projection: the entablature is supported by four columns; and the
   volutes of the capitals of the outside column on each side of the
   gateway are formed in an angular direction, so as to exhibit two
   complete faces to view. The two side gateways, in their elevations,
   present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae. All these
   entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one
   being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and
   military triumphal procession. This frieze was designed by Mr. Henning,
   junior, the son of Mr. Henning who was well known for his models of the
   Elgin marbles.

   The gates were manufactured by Messrs. Bramah. They are of iron,
   bronzed, and fixed or hung to the piers by rings of gun-metal. The
   design consists of a beautiful arrangement of the Greek honeysuckle
   ornament; the parts being well defined, and the raffles of the leaves
   brought out in a most extraordinary manner.

Sites of interest

   Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the
   northeast corner near Marble Arch) and Rotten Row which is the northern
   boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. To the southeast is Hyde
   Park Corner. South of the Serpentine Lake is the Diana, Princess of
   Wales memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on July 6, 2004. A
   botanical sensation is the bizarre upside-down tree. Opposite Hyde Park
   corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough,
   which offers its top suite at £6,000 per night.

   Stanhope Lodge at Stanhope Gate, demolished to widen Park Lane, was the
   home of Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the
   Light Brigade. Parkes was later Inspector of the Park Constables of the
   Park and died in the Lodge on 14 November 1864.

   The photography for the Beatles album Beatles for Sale was taken at
   Hyde Park in autumn of 1964.

Concerts

   The main Live 8 concert in Hyde Park on 2 July 2005
   Enlarge
   The main Live 8 concert in Hyde Park on 2 July 2005

   Hyde Park has been the venue for some famous rock concerts, including
   those featuring Jethro Tull (1968), Blind Faith (1969), The Rolling
   Stones (1969), King Crimson (1969), Pink Floyd (1970), Roy Harper
   (1971), The Who (1973), Bon Jovi (2003), Red Hot Chili Peppers (2004),
   Live 8 (2005), and the Foo Fighters (2006), who played their biggest
   crowd to date with over 80,000 people in attendance.

   Queen played one of their most famous gigs here in 1976. They set an
   attendance record, with 150,000 people confirmed to be in attendance.
   The actual number is thought to be closer to 180,000, if not 200,000.

   More recent events include Red Hot Chili Peppers, who, at Hyde Park,
   set a world-wide record for the highest grossing concert at a single
   venue, in history. It is estimated that 245,000 people saw it over the
   course of three nights, thus calculating to over 80,000 people per
   night.

   The Irish dance spectacular "Feet of Flames" was made on July 25, 1998
   for a one-time event in Hyde Park's the Route of Kings (a riding track
   called the "Route du Roi" is now always known as "Rotten Row"). In
   front of an audience of 25,000 people Michael Flatley danced on one of
   the largest stages ever built, specifically made for the show.

Poem

          At Rotten Row around a tree
          With Albert's help did Mr P
          His stately pleasure dome design:
          The greatest greenhouse ever seen;
          A glass cathedral on the green,
          Beside the crystal Serpentine.

                (from "Joseph and His Amazing Crystal Palace" by John
                Greatrex, parodying "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor
                Coleridge)

Hyde Park in fiction

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   In Volume II of Alan Moore's graphic novel, The League of Extraordinary
   Gentlemen, a character implies that Hyde Park is named in honour of Mr.
   Edward Hyde, the bestial alter ego of Dr. Henry Jekyll, the titular
   character(s) of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, The Strange Case of
   Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This was a posthumous honour, done so to
   recognize Hyde's death while attempting to stop invaders from the
   planet Mars in their advance upon London (adapted from H. G. Wells' The
   War of the Worlds). In this story, Hyde Park was originally named
   "Serpentine Park".

   In The Face of Evil (a serial in the British science fiction television
   series Doctor Who), The Doctor is attempting to reach Hyde Park when he
   lands on an alien planet.

   Hyde Park is also the setting for Anne Perry's Victorian murder
   mystery, The Hyde Park Headsman in which several murder victims are
   found beheaded in or near the park under strange circumstances, causing
   near-hysterical terror in the residents of 1892 London. Superintendent
   Thomas Pitt is charged with discovering the murderer before he/she can
   strike again.

   Hyde Park features as a setting in The Eye in the Door by British
   novelist Pat Barker. Chapter one in particular alludes to the Park's
   history as a gay cruising ground before the decriminalization of
   homosexuality in 1967.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park%2C_London"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
