Green Park

The West End


At 19 hectares, Green Park is the smallest of the eight royal parks. It has huge plane and oak trees and undulating meadows, and it’s never as crowded as its neighbour, the more manicured St James’s Park. It was once a duelling ground and, like Hyde Park, served as a vegetable garden during WWII.

It famously has no flower beds as they were banned by Queen Catherine of Braganza after she learned her philandering husband Charles II had been picking posies for his mistresses. Or so the story goes…


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The West End attractions

1. Spencer House

0.11 MILES

Just outside the borders of Green Park is Spencer House, completed in the Palladian style in 1766 for the first Earl Spencer, an ancestor of the late…

2. Clarence House

0.2 MILES

Five ground-floor rooms of Clarence House, the official residence of Charles, the Prince of Wales and his consort, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are…

3. St James’s Palace

0.22 MILES

The striking Tudor gatehouse of St James’s Palace is the only surviving part of a building initiated by the palace-mad Henry VIII in 1531 on the grounds…

4. Royal Arcade

0.25 MILES

Running perpendicular to Burlington Arcade between Old Bond and Albermarle Sts is this more recent arcade dating from 1880.

5. Queen’s Chapel

0.25 MILES

This small chapel (1625) is where royals such as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother have lain in their coffins in the days before their funerals. The…

6. Burlington Arcade

0.25 MILES

Flanking Burlington House, which is home to the Royal Academy of Arts, is this delightful arcade, built in 1819. Today it is a shopping precinct for the…

7. Royal Academy of Arts

0.26 MILES

Britain’s oldest society devoted to fine arts was founded in 1768 and moved here to Burlington House a century later. For its 250th birthday in 2018, the…

8. Queen Victoria Memorial

0.27 MILES

Not many public buildings of note were built during the first 15 years of the 20th century, apart from the Admiralty Arch (1910) in the Edwardian baroque…