Kensington Gardens - one of the Royal Parks, located on the west side of Hyde Park. Once it was the king's private possessions at Kensington Palace, and now - a public garden full of charming corners.

In 1689, William III bought a part of Hyde Park - King-asthmatic wanted to live in this place: local air seemed to him healing. Elegant landscape, which now enjoy visitors, created the three queens. Began work on the garden, the wife of William, Mary II, continued - her sister Anna. But the biggest change occurred in 1728, when the garden took Queen Caroline, wife of George II.

That's when Carolina Kensington Gardens began to look like it is now. Renowned landscape designer Charles Bridgeman dug Round Pond, raschertil space lanes, created an artificial lake Long Water as the boundary of Hyde Park.

Already at the Queen Victoria at the northern tip of Long Water Italian gardens were created. It is believed that Prince Albert, an avid gardener, gave them to his beloved wife - four pools of Carrara marble and Portland stone with a fountain in the middle, surrounded by balustrades, stone statues and carved urns. In the southern part of Kensington Gardens is a posthumous gift to the husband of Victoria - Albert Memorial.

In the gardens you can relax and meditate on the bench, breathing in the scent of flowers and listening to the birds (178 species of them here), and it is possible to inspect the rest of the attractions. Among them - the Gallery of Modern Art "Serpentine", Arch Henry Moore, an obelisk memory of the famous explorer John Hanning Speke Africa. It draws attention to the statue of physical energy works by George Watts - a man on a horse, the personification of will and power (a monument dedicated to Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the Diamond Empire "De Beers" and Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe). Between the pool sits a bronze Edward Jenner - the creator of the smallpox vaccine (sculpture by William Calder Marshall).

If a visitor to the child, we can not go to the playground memory of Princess Diana. However, it will be difficult to leave: there is a huge pirate ship, surrounded by swings, slides, lodges, and most importantly - deposits of sand, where you can dig for hours. Next to the playground - the famous "Oak elf" (devyatisotletny stump, which live in crevices of small figures of elves, fairies, gnomes, started in 1920 as an illustrator of children's books Ivor Innes).

It is possible that the child will be able to lure, promising to show Peter Pan. Sculpture depicting the eternal boy, which tend to rabbits, mice, squirrels, and fairy tale author was ordered by James Barry. In the book "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" Peter first appears it is here - landing on a flower bed.