London parks

One of the joys of my new membership of the Reform Club situated at 104 Pall Mall is an early morning walk in nearby St James Park.

No city I have ever visited matches central London for its 5 parks: Regents Park, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St James.

If you took an overhead photo from a plane over central London you would mostly see water and green.

These parks do not just bring nature into the city but are wonderful places for peaceful thought and – in the case of Regents Park – sporting recreation.

Tuesday was one of those difficult mornings when I had been awake since 3-30am following the appalling events developing in Israel.

I had an important meeting with my accountant at 11-00am for which I needed to prep and, after that, hosting a lunch at the Reform Club.

I needed to pack and do basic daily admin too.

There was not really time for a walk in the park but I resolved to take one anyway.

Most of the people using the park were either tourists or office workers, both of whom were disturbing the peace by loud mobile use.

St James is one of the smaller parks and most of the activity centres round the path round the lake.

Once an up and coming Conservative politician was caught ‘in flagrantè’ with a soldier in the Household Cavalry, whose barracks are nearby.  I have often wondered how he was able to conduct ‘The Act’  with any degree of privacy.

Hampstead Heath has a dogging area near the Spaniards Inn but it is far less secluded and not even mentioned in Hunter Davies’ excellent book The Heath.