London might be famous for its traffic, towering buildings and packed Tube trains, but it’s also one of the greenest major cities in the world. From enormous royal hunting grounds to tiny hidden gardens, the capital is full of parks, commons, woodlands and green squares, each with its own history.
But there’s a lot more to London’s green spaces than dog walking, picnics and sunbathing. Some were created to save Londoners from pollution, others were once reserved for royalty, and a few have some pretty unexpected connections to dinosaurs, television soaps and even the Second World War.
Here are 16 interesting, surprising and occasionally bizarre facts about London’s parks and green spaces that might make you look at your local patch of greenery a little differently.
1. Victoria Park isn’t actually a Royal Park
Despite being named after Queen Victoria, Victoria Park in East London isn’t one of London’s eight official Royal Parks.
In 1840, around 30,000 East London residents signed a petition asking Queen Victoria for a Royal Park to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in overcrowded, polluted neighbourhoods.
The park opened in 1845 and became known as The People’s Park. It was designed to provide fresh air and recreation for working-class Londoners at a time when much of the East End had almost no accessible green space.
Today, Victoria Park is managed by Tower Hamlets Council rather than The Royal Parks charity. So although it has a royal name and royal connections, it’s officially a public park, not one of the eight Royal Parks.
2. St James’s Park has had pelicans for over 350 years
If you’ve ever spotted an enormous white bird wandering around St James’s Park, you weren’t imagining things.
Pelicans have lived in the park since 1664, when the Russian ambassador presented a pair of the birds to King Charles II.
Over the centuries, they’ve become some of the park’s most famous residents. They spend much of their time around the lake, swimming, sunbathing and occasionally looking rather intimidating.
The pelicans are fed fish by park staff every day, although they’re also quite capable of catching their own snacks.
It’s one of London’s longest-running and most unusual wildlife traditions.
3. Green Park has no formal flowerbeds because of a jealous queen – or so the story goes
Have you noticed that Green Park, next to Buckingham Palace, looks rather different from London’s other Royal Parks?
While places such as Regent’s Park are full of formal flowerbeds and ornamental gardens, Green Park is mostly open lawns and mature trees.
According to a popular legend, Queen Catherine, wife of King Charles II, discovered that her husband had been picking flowers in the park for another woman. In a fit of jealousy, she ordered all the flowers to be removed and banned any new ones from being planted.
Whether this actually happened is uncertain, but it’s a wonderfully dramatic explanation for the park’s unusual appearance.
And despite the story, Green Park isn’t entirely flower-free. Thousands of daffodils appear there every spring.
4. Richmond Park was once surrounded by a wall to keep ordinary people out
Richmond Park is now one of London’s most popular green spaces, famous for its deer, ancient oak trees and vast open landscapes.
But in the 1600s, things were rather different.
King Charles I turned the area into a royal hunting ground and, in 1637, built an eight-mile brick wall around it to keep the deer inside and local residents outside.
Understandably, the locals weren’t particularly happy about losing access to land they had previously used.
The king eventually provided a ladder over the wall to allow people access, although disputes over public rights continued.
Today, the park is open to everyone, and you can still see sections of the historic wall.
5. Crystal Palace Park had dinosaurs before Darwin published his famous book
The dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park are among London’s strangest outdoor attractions.
These enormous prehistoric sculptures were created in the 1850s, before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859.
They were some of the world’s first life-sized reconstructions of extinct animals, created using the scientific knowledge available at the time.
Some look quite different from how we imagine dinosaurs today, with bulky bodies, unusual proportions and rather curious facial expressions.
In 1854, a celebratory dinner was even held inside the mould of one of the Iguanodon models.
It’s a brilliant reminder of how much our understanding of prehistoric life has changed.
6. The D-Day landings were planned from a London park
Bushy Park, near Hampton Court Palace, looks like a peaceful landscape of deer, ponds and ancient trees.
But during the Second World War, it became a major Allied military headquarters.
In 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his team used Bushy Park as a base while finalising plans for the D-Day landings in Normandy.
The park was home to thousands of military personnel, temporary buildings, offices and communications facilities.
Many of the wartime structures have disappeared, but a memorial still marks the former site of Eisenhower’s office.
Next time you’re walking through Bushy Park, remember that one of the most significant military operations in modern history was planned here.
7. Walthamstow Wetlands is also a working drinking water facility
Walthamstow Wetlands is one of the largest urban wetland nature reserves in Europe, but it has a rather important second job.
The site contains ten working reservoirs that help supply drinking water to approximately 3.5 million Londoners.
At the same time, it’s an important habitat for birds, fish, insects and other wildlife.
Visitors can enjoy walking, birdwatching and exploring the nature trails, while Thames Water continues to operate the reservoirs.
It’s a fascinating example of how industrial infrastructure and wildlife conservation can exist side by side in a busy city.
8. Abney Park Cemetery was originally designed as a botanical garden
Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington might feel like an overgrown woodland today, but when it opened in 1840, it was one of London’s most ambitious horticultural projects.
The cemetery was designed as an arboretum, with around 2,500 varieties of trees and shrubs and more than 1,000 varieties of roses.
The plants were supplied by the famous Loddiges nursery in Hackney, which had one of the country’s most important collections of exotic plants.
Over time, as the cemetery became neglected, nature gradually took over.
Today, Abney Park is a nature reserve and historic cemetery, with mature trees, wildlife habitats and atmospheric Victorian monuments.
It’s a wonderful example of how a carefully designed landscape can slowly become something much wilder.
9. Parkland Walk is an abandoned railway transformed into a nature reserve
Parkland Walk in North London is a leafy walking route running along a former railway line between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace.
The railway once carried passengers through this part of London, but services eventually ended, leaving tracks, platforms and railway infrastructure behind.
Plans to develop parts of the route met opposition from local residents, and the land was eventually protected as public open space.
Parkland Walk officially opened in 1984 and is now a designated nature reserve.
You can still see old railway platforms of the Northern Line, bridges and other remnants of its industrial past among the trees.
It’s a lovely example of how an abandoned piece of infrastructure can become an important green corridor for wildlife and people.
10. The Serpentine in Hyde Park is actually a man-made lake
The Serpentine is one of London’s most recognisable lakes, but it wasn’t created by nature.
Queen Caroline, wife of George II, commissioned its construction in the 1720s and 1730s as part of improvements to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
The lake was formed by damming the Westbourne Stream, which now flows underground.
At the time, the Serpentine’s natural-looking, curving shape was a fashionable alternative to the straight canals and formal pools commonly found in grand gardens.
Today, people enjoy boating, swimming in designated areas and walking around its banks, often without realising the lake was carefully designed nearly 300 years ago.
11. Kew Gardens is royal, but it isn’t a Royal Park either
Here’s another confusing piece of London park terminology.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew have ‘Royal’ in their name, but they’re not one of London’s eight Royal Parks.
Kew is a specialist botanical institution with a major international role in plant science, research and conservation.
It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the Temperate House, the world’s largest Victorian glasshouse.
Unlike most Royal Parks, Kew generally charges an admission fee to help support its specialist collections, research and conservation work.
So although Kew Gardens and Richmond Park both have royal connections and enormous green landscapes, they have very different purposes and management structures.
12. Hampstead Heath’s swimming ponds were originally built as reservoirs
Today, Hampstead Heath is famous for its open-air swimming ponds, where brave Londoners take a dip throughout the year.
But many of the ponds weren’t originally created for swimming at all.
They were constructed during the 17th and 18th centuries to store and supply water to London’s growing population.
Fed by tributaries of the River Fleet, the reservoirs eventually became popular places for bathing and recreation.
Today, there are three designated swimming ponds: the Men’s Pond, the Ladies’ Pond and the Mixed Pond.
It’s quite remarkable that part of London’s historic water supply system has become one of its best-loved outdoor swimming destinations.
13. London Fields used to be a route for cattle travelling through Hackney
London Fields is now famous for its lido, summer picnics, cafés and bustling weekend atmosphere.
But long before it became a fashionable East London hangout, it was an important area of common land used for grazing animals and moving livestock.
Its recorded history stretches back to the 1300s, and it was once part of the network of routes used by drovers taking animals through London.
Over the centuries, the space has also been used for military training, sport and public recreation.
So the next time you’re sitting on the grass with a takeaway coffee, imagine cows wandering past where sunbathers now spread their picnic blankets.
14. The City of London looks after a forest miles outside the City
You might expect the City of London Corporation to be responsible for places like the Guildhall and the Square Mile’s streets.
But it also looks after Epping Forest, an enormous ancient woodland stretching approximately 13 miles from East London into Essex.
Epping Forest was once a royal hunting ground, but by the 19th century, large parts were under threat from enclosure and development.
The Epping Forest Act of 1878 helped protect the land as public open space, with the City of London Corporation becoming responsible for its conservation.
Today, the forest is home to ancient trees, rare wildlife, grasslands and walking trails.
It’s a rather unexpected responsibility for the local authority best known for London’s financial district.
15. Dalston Eastern Curve Garden was built on an abandoned railway line
Hidden in the middle of busy Dalston is one of East London’s most unusual green spaces.
Dalston Eastern Curve Garden was created in 2010 on a disused railway line that once connected Dalston Junction with the North London Line.
Rather than allowing the site to remain empty, local organisations, designers and residents worked together to transform it into a community garden.
Today, it’s filled with trees, flowers, raised planting beds and places for people to sit and socialise.
The garden is run as a social enterprise, with income from its café helping fund maintenance, education programmes and community events.
It’s a great example of how relatively small, forgotten spaces can be transformed into valuable green places for local residents.
16. Albert Square from EastEnders was inspired by a real garden square in Hackney
You might think that Albert Square, home to the Queen Vic and decades of EastEnders drama, is a real place in East London.
But the famous square is actually a television set in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire!
Its inspiration, however, is very real.
Fassett Square in Hackney is a beautiful Victorian residential square dating from the 1860s, with terraced houses surrounding a private communal garden.
The creators of EastEnders used the square’s architecture and layout as inspiration for the fictional Albert Square when developing the BBC soap in the 1980s.
Interestingly, there is a real Albert Square in London, but it’s in South London, just off Clapham Road, and has nothing to do with the television programme.
So if you’re looking for the real-life inspiration for Walford, head to Fassett Square in Hackney. Just don’t expect to find the Queen Vic serving pints!
London’s green spaces are full of hidden stories
From royal hunting grounds and Victorian cemeteries to abandoned railway lines and fictional television locations, London’s parks and gardens have played all sorts of unexpected roles in the city’s history.
What makes them particularly interesting is how they’ve changed over time.
Places that were once private estates have become public parks. Former reservoirs are now swimming spots. Disused railway lines have been transformed into wildlife corridors, and historic cemeteries have evolved into thriving nature reserves.
These stories remind us that London’s green spaces aren’t just decorative patches of grass between buildings. They’re living pieces of the city’s history, shaped by generations of Londoners and constantly changing to meet new needs.
They also demonstrate why it’s so important to protect green spaces of every size and type.
Whether you’re visiting one of London’s famous Royal Parks or discovering a tiny community garden hidden behind a busy high street, there’s usually more to the place than first meets the eye.
And who knows? Your local park might have a story that’s just as fascinating as any of these.
Here is a little summary of the fun facts.
16 Fun Facts About London’s Parks and Green Spaces
- Victoria Park – Despite its royal name, it’s not a Royal Park. It was created to give working-class East Londoners fresh air and green space.
- St James’s Park – Pelicans have lived here since 1664, when they were gifted to King Charles II.
- Green Park – Legend says a jealous queen ordered the removal of its flowerbeds after her husband picked flowers for another woman.
- Richmond Park – King Charles I built an eight-mile wall around the park in 1637 to keep his deer in and ordinary people out.
- Crystal Palace Park – Its dinosaur sculptures were created before Darwin published On the Origin of Species.
- Bushy Park – The D-Day landings were planned from Allied military headquarters based here during WWII.
- Walthamstow Wetlands – This enormous wildlife reserve also helps supply drinking water to around 3.5 million Londoners.
- Abney Park Cemetery – Originally planted as a botanical collection with thousands of varieties of trees, shrubs and roses.
- Parkland Walk – A disused railway line transformed into a leafy nature reserve, complete with abandoned platforms.
- Hyde Park – The Serpentine lake is actually man-made, commissioned by Queen Caroline in the 1730s.
- Kew Gardens – Despite its royal title, it’s not a Royal Park but a world-famous botanical research centre.
- Hampstead Heath – Its famous swimming ponds were originally built as reservoirs for London’s water supply.
- London Fields – Before the picnics and lido, this Hackney park was common land used for grazing and moving cattle.
- Epping Forest – This enormous ancient woodland is managed by the City of London Corporation, miles from the Square Mile.
- Dalston Eastern Curve Garden – A much-loved community garden created on an abandoned railway line in 2010.
- Fassett Square – This private Victorian garden square in Hackney inspired the fictional Albert Square in EastEnders.
