St. James's Park, London

St. James's Park is a Royal Park spread across 23 hectares in Westminster, with a lake, islands, mature trees and open lawns. Its origins reach back to the 1530s, when Henry VIII enclosed marshland for deer beside his royal residence.

The lake’s Duck Island has an unusual past: in the late nineteenth century, Scotland Yard used it for bomb-disposal equipment, watched over by the resident bird-keeper. Look across the water for the park’s pelicans, whose presence began in 1664 after a Russian ambassador gave birds to Charles II. The colony produced chicks here in 2026, a new event in the park’s history. John Nash reshaped the grounds in 1826–27, turning the old canal into a more natural lake and replacing formal routes with winding paths.