Some Tidbits - Kensington Gardens

Since a couple of my fellow scribblers write Regency Historicals, and I live a stonethrow outside London, I thought I’ll see what I can glean about the period (1788 – 1830)… and share here.

First of all… The parks. The place to see, and be seen.

You had Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens (It’s not Kensington Park, but Gardens), Green Park, St. James’s Park.

I’ll start with what I can find out about Kensington Gardens.

Kensington Gardens is large, about 1.1 km square (275 acres). Most of it is in the Borough of Westminster, though a corner lies in the Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea. (Later it became famous in Peter Pan, but that’s 1906)

The Garden used to be attached to Kensington Palace, and is generally perceived to be part of Hyde Park - which it is not.
BTW the Fairies that allegedly live in Kensington Gardens were first described in Thomas Tickell’s “Kensington Gardens” poem in 1722. So this is something the Regency people would know about.
The gardens were open on Saturdays to anyone who was ‘respectably dressed’. The main path, the Broad Walk, became as fashionable as the Mall in St James’s Park had been during the reign of King Charles II and there was a ditch seperating Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park. (Not a fence!)
This is what someone wrote about it in 1825:

“The public promenades are St. James’s Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, which communicate with each other. I am sometimes tempted to prefer these parks to the gardens of the Luxembourg and the Tuileries, which, however, cannot give you any idea of them. St. James’s Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens are to me the Tuileries, the Champs Élysees, and the Jardin des Plantes united. On Sundays the crowd of carriages which repair thither, and the gentlemen of fashion who exhibit their horsemanship with admirable dexterity in the ride, remind me of Long Champs; but hackney coaches are not allowed to enter here to destroy the fine spectacle which so many elegant carriages afford. Sheep graze tranquilly in Hyde Park, where it is also pleasing to see the deer bounding about. At Kensington Gardens you are obliged to leave your horse or carriage standing at the gate. Walking through its shady alleys I observed with pleasure that the fashionable ladies pay, in regard to dress, a just tribute to our fair countrywomen. Judging from the costumes of the ladies, you might sometimes fancy yourself walking under the chestnut trees of the Tuileries.”
More information - WAY more than I could ever hope to convey here (or would want to) and the rest of the above - can be found here along with a ton of other reference material both on the period, and the area.

Jane Austen remarked on Kensington Gardens as well. She mentions walks in Kensington Gardens, and that it was as well to keep your eyes open for thieves and wounded duellists, as Hyde Park was a favourite place for duels, illegal though they were. More peacefully, you could see deer and a railed enclosure on summer evenings with as many as 300 carriages full of ‘fine ladies and gentlemen. They came and drove slowly round in order to see and be seen.’

Dust was laid by sprinkler carts. The gentry did not appear on Sundays, because the populace invaded the park on their only day off. The very size of the park made it ideal for mass occasions such as army reviews.

Kensington Gardens is famous for it’s Round Pond.

Today at the end of the Serpentine you have the Italian Gardens, but this was added during the Victorian Era, so be watchful what you describe. The park has been added to and changed a lot over the years. Technically, the Serpentine Lake is in Hyde Park, not Kensington Gardens, but it’s pretty borderline.

Queen Victoria used to ride her donkey there, as a kid, regularly. So it wouldn’t be unusual to encounter her as a two or three year old. (It was a donkey - not a pony.)

Anyway… I’ll be off now.