Welcome to Green Park, and what a fitting place to end our journey together. This quiet, 21-hectare stretch of grassland and trees sits right beside Buckingham Palace, yet somehow feels like the city's best-kept secret.
What makes Green Park unusual among London's royal parks is its deliberate simplicity. There are no ornamental fountains, no formal flower beds, no lakes. Just grass, groves of trees, and winding paths that date back to King Charles II, the English monarch who added this land to the royal estate in the late 17th century. In 1820, the celebrated architect John Nash, who also redesigned large parts of central London, gave the park a more natural, flowing landscape style.
But before any of that, this ground had a far grimmer past. In medieval times, the area served as a burial ground for leprosy sufferers from a nearby hospital called St. James's. Later, the land was used as a sandpit for construction materials, which earned it the charming nickname "Sandpit Field."
Today, the Canada Memorial stands here quietly, honouring Canadian soldiers who died in both World Wars, designed by the sculptor Pierre Granche.
Sources. Story: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Park_(Londen)Londen Geschiedenis en wetenswaardighedenhttps://www.britainexpress.com/London/green-park.htm#google_vignette Photos: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
