Parliament once sold Hyde Park for cash, deer included at extra cost
In 1652 Parliament put Hyde Park on the market for ready money. It fetched 17,000 pounds, plus a separate 765 pounds and change for the deer living there. Eight years later the restored Charles II simply took it back, walled it in brick and restocked the herd, as if the sale had never happened.
The land began as the Manor of Hyde, a Saxon name for a hide, a patch reckoned big enough to support one family. Westminster Abbey held it through the Middle Ages until Henry VIII seized it in 1536 as a private deer park for hunting. James I let in a few gentlefolk and planted two hundred lime trees shipped from the Low Countries, and Charles I finally threw it open to everyone in 1637. May Day crowds made it instantly popular; Samuel Pepys joined in 1663 hoping to catch the King's eye.
Much of today's shape came in the 1720s and 1730s. Under George I and then Queen Caroline, the landscaper Charles Bridgeman dammed the River Westbourne to create the Serpentine and split off Kensington Gardens, which still closes at dusk while its neighbour stays open until midnight. Together the pair cover about 253 hectares. William III's carriage drive to Kensington Palace became Rotten Row, thought to be the first road in London lit after dark, a defence against highwaymen.
The park has always drawn crowds for big occasions. The Great Exhibition of 1851 filled a vast glass hall designed by Joseph Paxton, who later bought it and moved it to Sydenham Hill. Queen Victoria pinned the first Victoria Crosses on 62 men here in 1857, and thirty years later some 26,000 schoolchildren got a free meal for her Golden Jubilee. An 1814 fair even restaged Trafalgar on the lake, sinking the French fleet to the national anthem.
Speakers' Corner has hosted open debate since 1872, and Chartists, suffragettes and many later movements rallied nearby. In the late twentieth century the grass carried free concerts by Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Queen, followed by Live 8 in 2005. Since 2007 Winter Wonderland has turned it into one of Europe's largest Christmas events, drawing more than 14 million visitors by 2016.
Source: Hyde Park, London
