UK Travel Search - London - Notting Hill Carnival, Hyde Park, Serpentine, Kensington Gardens, Marble Arch, Portobello Road-Travel Information


	Home \| Team \| Contact Us \| Maps \| Visas & Immigration \| Specials \| Add Your Listing \| UK Time

	UK & IRELAND MAPS
Search Travel Services
	ACCOMMODATION
	MEETINGS/CONFERENCES
	THEATRE BOOKINGS
	TRANSPORT
	TUBE MAP
	TOURS
	Custom Itineraries
	UK Information Links
	UK Information Guides
Search Special Travel
	Myths, Magic & Legends
	Battlefields Remembered
Search Destinations
	ENGLAND
	LONDON
	LONDON 2012 GAMES
	IRELAND
	SCOTLAND
	WALES
	CHANNEL ISLANDS
	ISLE OF MAN
	PARIS
Odds n' Ends..!
	American English!
	Famous People & Places
Administration
	ABOUT US
	Terms & Conditions
	Secure Payment Options
	Privacy Statement
	Currency Converter

In medieval times Marylebone was St Mary-by-the-Bourne, one of London's outlying villages. Londoners used to clip-clop along to it by horse and cart - the journey didn't take long.

As London expanded to the west in the 18th century, Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, developed the Marylebone district and erected grand Georgian houses. Today, the area's Georgian squares and genteel streets provide pleasant afternoon strolling within a stone's-throw of Regents Park. Marylebone High Street retains a village-like charm.

Click on the headings to find out more:

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens serve as 'the lungs of London,' a welcome expanse of green space and sparkling water in the heart of Europe's biggest city. Along the north side of the park runs Bayswater Road, full of tree-lined avenues flanked by classic Victorian white stucco townhouses. Heading west, Bayswater Road passes the tube stations of Lancaster Gate and Queensway before turning into Notting Hill Gate. If you've seen the movie Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, you'll have an idea of how the place looks. Just around the corner is Portobello Road, site of London's most popular street market.

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are divided by the Serpentine, a lake created in 1730 by damming a tributary of the Thames. Although the two parks have long since merged effectively into one, Hyde Park is ages older than Kensington Gardens. Hyde Park originally belonged to Westminster Abbey - until the cantankerous Henry VIII seized it for himself. King James I opened the park to the public in the early 17th century.

Kensington Gardens didn't become a public park until the early Victorian era - 1841 to be precise. Before that, a few people were allowed in, but no commoners. Riff-raff were thrown out. Visitors had to be of the correct social classes and were required to wear formal attire. The five young men playing hockey on unicycles I saw on my last visit wouldn't have been tolerated in the Victorian age!

A few people visited Kensington Gardens informally. Harriet Westbrook, pregnant wife of English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, ran into Kensington Gardens and drowned herself in the Serpentine in 1816 after learning that her husband had eloped with a 16-year-old girl. (The girl, Mary Wollstonecraft, went on to write the novel Frankenstein - but that's another story.)

Hyde Park, central London's biggest park at about one mile wide and 1.5 miles long, boasts its own wild history. It echoed to the shouts, shots and shrieks of muggings and duels. Highwaymen robbed stray travellers virtually at will. George II was mugged here - and if it could happen to him it could happen to anybody.

Tyburn Gallows, where Marble Arch now stands, was London's top spot for public executions until 1783. Britain at one stage had 223 capital offences (including the crime of "breaking down the head or mound of any fish-pond".) In practice people were hanged for only 25 of these, leaving plenty of convicts to be transported to the American and Caribbean colonies (and to Australia after the American colonies inconveniently declared independence).

The Tyburn Multiple-drop Gallows, nicknamed 'the triple tree' or 'the deadly nevergreen', could execute up to 20 people at a time, sometimes before unruly crowds of 200,000 spectators. Pickpockets loved Tyburn crowds - and the crowds turned out to watch pickpockets being hanged. Talk about a vicious circle - so much for the gallows as a deterrent! Some 50,000 felons were dispatched at Tyburn before the gallows were torn down.

The term 'swinging London' has merrier connotations these days and Hyde Park is a much happier place. The Serpentine is a prized spot in hot summer weather. One pleasant and inexpensive activity is to buy a picnic lunch from one of the delis around Marble Arch, hire a boat at the kiosk on the Serpentine's north shore, row into an agreeable position in the middle of the lake (or under the shade of a weeping willow near the bank), and enjoy your lunch.

Marble Arch, isolated on a traffic island, was originally set up outside Buckingham Palace. It was designed as a triumphal arch by John Nash, who planned Regent's Park and much of Regent Street. Nash goofed and made Marble Arch a tad too narrow for the most splendid state coaches - leading to the banishment of his arch to this spot.

Speakers' Corner nearby is a splendid British Sunday institution. Anyone may speak on any subject. Topics range from politics to race and religion. Some speakers hold or wear placards. Eccentric nutritional theories flourish. Religious speakers, many of them from obscure sects, seek converts while hecklers provide humorous interjections and repartee.

At the southwestern corner of the Hyde Park, Constitution Arch stands aloof on another traffic island amid a swirling river of cars and buses, a bit like Marble Arch not far away. Constitution Arch was built to commemorate the Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon.

On the subject of traffic islands, London's first traffic island was built in 1864 in St James's Street, just down the road in Piccadilly. It was funded by one Colonel Pierpoint who was afraid of being knocked down on his way to (and more likely from) his Pall Mall club. When it was finished, the good colonel dashed across the road to admire his creation and was bowled over by a cab.

Near Hyde Park Corner tube station, Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington's London residence during his lifetime, is renowned for its palatial Waterloo Gallery. The house is furnished with all sorts of period bric-a-brac, including an interior decorator's nightmare in the form of an enormous nude statue of Napoleon. "Why, thank you - just what I've always wanted!"

The current Duke of Wellington still lives in Apsley House but has relegated himself to the attic, perhaps to avoid viewing that nude statue of Napoleon.

If you're into big statues, don't miss the 33-ton Achilles Statue in the park behind Apsley House. This hulking, naked, sword-wielding figure, cast of melted-down bronze from French cannons, rears up next to a naked headless torso (also in bronze). The statue's nakedness caused women to faint when it was erected in 1822. A fig leaf has been added to make the sight safe.

William III used to ride along a bridle path at the south of Hyde Park on his journeys between Kensington and Westminster. It became known as route du roi (the king's route), later corrupted to Rotten Row. Only the English could turn route du roi into Rotten Row - but it's nice to know the name has nothing to do with rotting fish. The soldiers of the Household Cavalry ride out of Hyde Park Barracks (to the south of Rotten Row) each day at 10.30am (9.30am Sundays) on their way to Whitehall for the Changing of the Guard.

The suburb of Bayswater to the north of Hyde Park remained a slum until Tyburn gallows was torn down. (If you think a noisy late-night bar lowers the tone of a neighbourhood, you'd shudder at the effect of a public gallows on property prices!)

The construction of the Grand Junction Canal and the arrival of the Great Western Railway at Paddington (just north of Bayswater) gave Bayswater a big boost in the early 19th century. Paddington Station on Praed Street was designed by the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1851. Brunel also designed the first transatlantic steamship, the Great Western.

Not far away, at the Fleming Laboratory on the corner of Norfolk Place, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident in 1928. "Great Scott professor, just look at this!"

The London Toy and Model Museum at 21 Craven Hill (a continuation of the western end of Praed Street) delights children and adult lovers of toys. The miniature railway in the garden is its most popular exhibit, but there are innumerable others.

Bayswater's main drag is Queensway, running north off Bayswater Road past the Queensway and Bayswater tube stations. Queensway is named after Queen Victoria, who rode her horse along here as a young princess. Queen Vic would be startled - and probably not amused - to see today's cosmopolitan Bayswater. Many of the residents speak Arabic and a lot of the restaurants are Chinese. It's a great place to eat. Maybe sample the Magic Wok at 100 Queensway, an adventurous Cantonese restaurant. Or Maroush, an upmarket Lebanese dining spot at 21 Edgware Road nearby.

Whiteley's, an elegant shopping mall complex, was London's first department store when it opened in 1863. Hitler was particularly taken with Whiteley's during a visit and vowed to make it his headquarters after Britain was brought under the yoke of the Third Reich. Allied armies squashed that little scheme.

A few blocks west of Kensington Gardens, Bayswater Road turns abruptly into Notting Hill Gate. If you'd bought property in this area a few decades ago you'd be laughing all the way to the bank. An expanse of farmland, gravel pits and piggeries in the 19th century (and a notorious rat-infested slum throughout much of the 20th century), Notting Hill has shot up the social ladder and suddenly become very fashionable. Ultra-trendy, in fact.

Notting Hill's secluded communal gardens, sandwiched between the rows of houses and scarcely visible from the street, make it London's most desirable location for families. Houses can cost more here than in ultra-upmarket Mayfair. Semi-detached houses on the east side of Ladbroke Road sell for about £3.5 million each - but you'll have to move quickly if you want to pick one up at that bargain price!

Notting Hill the movie, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, has helped popularise Notting Hill the suburb, but gentrification was under way long beforehand. Movie stars, rock singers, media types on the make and fashion designers (such as Stella McCartney, daughter of Sir Paul) are flooding into the area, which has acquired the sort of atmosphere the Kings Road, Chelsea, used to have in the 1960s.

The Canal Way branch of Sainsbury's cut-price supermarket and deli, near Ladbroke Grove tube station north of Notting Hill, is now said to be one of the best places in London to spot stars - which shows that fame isn't what it used to be. "Er, excuse me, could you autograph my frozen pizza?"

Notting Hill has a large Caribbean population. The three-day Notting Hill Carnival, held on the Bank Holiday last weekend of August, is the world's biggest street festival outside Rio. Take it from me; if you don't mind the other 1-2 million people who attend the three-day carnival, it is a blast! Colour, people, food, the most awesome sound systems in the world pumping out Caribbean music, and a riotous, colourful, all day street party on the Monday during the grand parade of floats.

If you're looking for somewhere memorable to eat, consider Veronica's at 3 Hereford Road. This eatery devotes itself to reviving Britain's culinary heritage. It serves historical dishes made to menus dredged up from the 2000-year-old archives of British cookery. Be bold and you may end up with something you never forget, although if you want larks' tongues you may have to wait.

Local pubs are special too. The Prince Bonaparte at 80 Chepstow Road is a great place to hang out on a sunny day and caters to the locals of Notting Hill. Or try The Westbourne (101 Westbourne Park Villas) - trendy crowd, great food and an impressive selection of fine beers.

Pembridge Villas heads north off Notting Hill Gate. From there, a short stroll from Notting Hill Gate tube station, you'll find Portobello Road.

Portobello Road is the world's most famous market. The Stock Exchange on New York's Wall Street is its only competitor in the fame stakes. Portobello is a long road running from Notting Hill to North Kensington. It's really several markets one after the other, and you can buy just about anything there. People have been doing so since 1837.

More than 2000 traders sell antiques, jewellery, coins, paintings medals and suchlike along the southernmost section. Portobello's Antiques Market is open from 4am (they start early!) to 6pm on Saturdays. Most of the stallholders are canny dealers who know their stuff and exactly what it's worth. So if you think you'll come across a little old man offering to sell the tarnished silver top of a Regency cane as an eggcup for 50 pence, think again! Even so, there are good deals to be had.

Little shops in the streets off Portobello Road are worth browsing - art galleries and ceramic studios in the area around Elgin Crescent, for instance. Don't miss eccentric Wong Singh Jones at 235 Portobello Road. That's a shop, by the way, not a local character.

Other parts of Portobello Road sell fruit and vegetables or bric-a-brac. Organic vegetables - the newest British obsession - can be obtained cheap. Bargains abound (in clothing rather than vegetables) at the northern end of Portobello Road, around the Westway flyover and beyond to Golborne Road. The general market in Portobello Road is open 8am to 6pm Monday to Wednesday; 9am to 1pm Thursday; 7am to 7pm Fridays and Saturdays.

The Golborne Road area offers Moroccan and Portuguese eateries - plus a monstrous erection in the form of monolithic Trellick Tower, Britain's biggest apartment block when it went up in 1973. Goldfinger was the driving force behind Trellick Tower, and it shows. Hungarian born Erno Goldfinger was a big name in British architectural circles a few decades ago. The foreign editor of London's Sunday Times newspaper at the time, James Bond creator Ian Fleming, found Goldfinger's work so distasteful he named a novel and a classic villain after him. Now that's revenge!





Send this page to a friend Add page to favourites

VIEW AREA MAP

DOWNLOAD OLD MAP

VISITOR INFORMATION