Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens are the western, more regal twin of Hyde Park and were created in the 18th century as the private garden of Queen Caroline, wife of George II. Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman laid out the 1.1 square kilometers in the formal style - the Long Water and the Serpentine lake now shared with Hyde Park date from this scheme. Here stands the lavish Albert Memorial of 1872, which George Gilbert Scott designed for Queen Victoria to commemorate her dead husband, with Royal Albert Hall as backdrop. In the northwest corner waits George Frampton's Peter Pan statue (1912), commissioned secretly by J. M. Barrie because he set his stories in the park. Model sailing boats criss-cross the Round Pond on Sundays; wedding photographers cluster at the Italian Garden fountains. The quieter park cousin to the bustle across the road.