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As
with almost all of London's royal parks, Londoners have Henry III to
thank for Regent's Park, which he confiscated from the Church
for yet more hunting grounds. However, it wasn't until the reign of the
Prince Regent (later George I) that the park began to take its current
form. According to the masterplan, deised by John Nash in 1811, the
park was to be girded by a continuous belt of terraces, and sprinkled
with a total of 56 illas, including a magnificent pleasure palace for
the Prince himself, which would be linked by Regent Street to Carlton
House in St James's. The plan was never fully realized, due to lack of
funds, but enough was built to create something of the idealized garden
city that Nash and the Prince Regent envisaged.
To
appreciate the special quality of Regent's Park, take a closer look at
the architecture, starting with the Nash terraces, which form a
near-unbroken horseshoe of cream-colored stucco around the Outer Circle.
Within the Inner Circle is the Open Air Theatre, which puts on
summer performances of Shakespeare, opera and ballet, and Queven
Mary's Gardens, by far the prettiest section of the park. A large
slice of the gardens is taken up with a glorious rose garden, featuring
some 400 arieties, surrounded by a ring of ramblers.
Clearly isible on the western edge of the park is the shiny copper dome
and minaret of the London Central Mosque, an entirely
appropriate addition given the Prince Regent's taste for the Orient.
Non-Muslim isitors are welcome to look in at the information centre,
and glimpse inside the hall of worship, which is packed out with a
diersity of communities for the lunchtime Friday prayers.
Daily 5am-dusk; www.royalparks.co.uk. Tube: Regent's Park, Baker Street
or Great Portland Street.
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