Londoners Magazine

In his poem, A Ramble in St James’s Park, John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, described the park as a place for the worst sort of debauchery. Funny what a difference a few centuries can make because the St. James’s Park of today is far from its Bois de Boulogne style hey day. Instead it’s a paradise for families, picnickers and joggers alike.

The park’s eccentric history begins in the 1500s, when Henry VIII purchased the swampy marshland and turned it into a deer park for St James’s Palace. In the 1600s, it became home to a menagerie of camels, crocodiles, an elephant and flocks of exotic birds, before being redesigned by John Nash in 1828 in the English landscape style that can be seen today.

The park has provided the elegant backdrop for a multitude of film-scenes. Judi Dench takes a stroll through it in 2005’s Mrs Henderson Presents, while Woody Allen shot several scenes from 2006’s Match Point here. In 1996’s 101 Dalmatian’s Joely Richardson and Jeff Daniels end up falling into the lake thanks to their excited pets, while Bond villain Toby Stephens parachutes into the park, on route to Buckingham Palace, in 2002 Bond movie, Die Another Day.

The lake is a wildfowl sanctuary for ducks, geese, pelicans and black swans. The bridge over it, constructed in 1956, provides views of the Horse Guards and Whitehall rooftops in one direction and Buckingham Palace in the other. At night, when the palace is floodlit, the view is particularly impressive.

An evening stroll through the park is perhaps an even more enjoyable experience than during the day. Twinkling lights along the paths cast a beam onto the shimmering lake and dark stretches of grass and it’s so quiet you almost forget you are in the heart of London.