PUBLIC USE

INFORMAL AND SEMI-FORMAL ACTIVITIES

facilities to enhance more passive visitor enjoyment of the parks.
These include the boats for use on the Serpentine which can be hired from boating
concession and a small launch boat trip both serviced from the Boathouse jetty.
Park Chairs hire deckchairs out for visitor relaxation and enjoyment, mainly concentrated
on the south facing lawns immediately above Serpentine Road and west of “Little Nell”.
In recent years the Serpentine Road has become a significant venue in London for in-line
skating/roller blading, adding to the animation and character of the Park, if also to its local
congestion, and recalling earlier traditions of social display and exercise associated with the
Ring in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and Rotten Row in the later nineteenth
and earlier twentieth centuries.
Perhaps Hyde Park’s greatest attribute and attraction is its ability to provide space for
informal and passive enjoyment in a range of spaces and scales and with great variety of
landscape setting, prospect and view. It exudes these qualities as the “peoples park”,
inviting spontaneous activity and quiet enjoyment to its many visitors.
Because of its relatively flat/gently sloping nature and substantial network of paths, the
Park generally lends itself well to special-needs groups.
Parts of the Park are heavily used for ball games - informally and spontaneously arranged
particularly the Parade Ground and “Sports Pitches” . Here ball games are having significant
impact in wear and tear (as the same areas are used regularly and intensively) and
increasingly in such a busy park, with potential conflict with pedestrians and other casual
users.