This walk of around 4 miles is from the Joolz Guides (Julian McDonnell) titled Rather Splendid London Pub Walks. It explores Kensington Gardens, parts of Kensington and Holland Park. I was joined on this walk by my friend Mike.
This walk starts at Queensway underground station then enters Kensington Gardens immediately opposite. A sunny morning and the park is quite pleasant. We passed the Princess Diana memorial gardens and headed to the palace.
One of two boundary markers on the boundary of Paddington and Westminster which the guide suggested had some strange connection with Peter Pan. The round lake appears on the left. The Peter Pan memorial is quite a way across the park so not seen.
The palace with Victoria's statue outside.
Out of the park and into Kensington Palace Gardens, an expensive area where all sorts of people have lived such as the Sultan of Brunei. Now mainly embassies and a pretty exlusive area.
Out into Kensington High Street and across to Kensington Court and the Electric Lighting house where Colonel Crompton lived and it and the neighbouring houses one of the first in the world to have mains electricity. After passing several streets and missing most of the items in the guide we reach St Mary's Abbot church which because of surrounding trees was hard to photograph.
More streets and we reach the other side of the church. The adjacent Mary Abbots Primary school with a couple of Blue Coat figures up high to indicate in the 16th century it was one of the Blue Coat schools.
A bit further on, opposite the Devonshire Arms, is a drinking fountain set in the wall in 1893 with a prayer to recognise the nearby workhouse. Then the Scarsdale Tavern which looked quite a nice pub.
More walking and more crossing of Kensington High Street brought us into Holland Park.
What remains of Holland House, currently being set up for an Opera concert.
The Fukushima and Kyoto gardens.
The large pond in the garden. Large stones formed much of the path round this which was a little tricky to walk on. The pond is home to some very large and pretty carp fish.
Leaving the pond we head out of the park, passing a chess board which was keeping the youngsters amused. We passed and had an excellent lunch in the Windsor Castle before reaching Notting Hill Gate tube station and the journey back home.