Hyde Park

Hyde Park, the largest of the Royal Parks in central London. It takes its name from the manor of Hyde, which once belonged to the abbott of Westminster. In the reign of Henry VIII it was a royal deer park. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was a fashionable park where royalty rode and drove, military reviews were held, and duels fought. In 1851, it was the location of the Great Exhibition, for which Crystal Palace was built.

Hyde Park covers around 140 hectares (350 acres) and is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, with which it shares a lake; the portion of the lake in Hyde Park is known as the Serpentine, and that in Kensington Gardens as The Long Water. Other features of the park are Rotten Row, a bridleway on the south side, and Speakers' Corner at the north-eastern extremity, a place of free speech for soapbox orators.