Viewing the Autumn Colours in London

Summer is finally over and the falling temperatures and windy days tell us that we've moved firmly into autumn. While it may be a time to put away the shorts and sandals for another year it's also a great time to get out and explore London's many open spaces. The city is blessed with dozens of parks and woodland areas where the leaves have now started to take on their autumn shades. For the next few weeks it's well worth heading to any of London's parks to take a walk and enjoy one of nature's finest shows.

Here are just a few of London's best known parks where you can take a walk, bring a picnic and for a while forget that you're in a major city. Don't forget your camera!


1. Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Whether you're on an open-top bus tour or just taking a stroll through the capital, you'd have to try hard to spend much time in London without touching the boundaries of Hyde Park. At this time of the year Hyde Park is popular with visitors taking a walk (or riding their bikes) and admiring the colours among the park's many trees.

No sooner have the leaves dropped than the park gets prepared for its biggest event of the year, the Winter Wonderland fun fair.


2. Regent's Park

Just beyond Madame Tussaud's is Regent's Park, very popular with Londoners and a great place to go for a picnic. You can watch the more energetic folks playing sports in the park (from the comfort and warmth of the famous Honest Sausage if you wish) before wandering out and kicking up the freshly fallen leaves that will soon form a golden carpet across the park.

Kyoto Garden, Holland Park

3. Holland Park

This wonderful little park is a local favourite among locals and visitors who want to enjoy a bit of fresh air in the heart of London. Wander along the narrow paths that snake through the woodland or sit in peace in the lovely Kyoto Garden. At this time of the year the mix between the autumn colours and the stubborn green of the evergreen plants is picture-perfect, especially on a sunny day!

4. St. James's Park

St James's Park is surrounded on all sides by important landmarks: Buckingham Palace to the west, Horseguards Parade to the east and the Mall along its northern edge. It's a popular haunt at lunchtime when civil servants from surrounding offices come pouring out to eat their modest sandwiches before rushing back to their desks. Take your time to walk along the water's edge and enjoy the park at its best. If you arrive early or late you may find that you'll have more squirrels than people for company.


5. Hampstead Heath

Sham Bridge, Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath is perhaps the best place to come if you fancy a decent walk. You can easily wander around the Heath for a couple of hours without retracing your traces, while the park offers plenty of variety in its scenery, from the superb views across the London skyline from Parliament Hill to the pleasant grounds of Kenwood House to the north end of the park.


6. Richmond Park

Perhaps the largest of all the parks we've listed here, you can easily spend a whole day in Richmond Park, allowing yourself plenty of time to enjoy its paths on two feet or two wheels while popping into nearby Richmond or Kingston for a spot of lunch or a refreshing drink.

The autumn colours are magnificent in Richmond Park and many London folks come to the park to enjoy the annual spectacle. If you're driving to the park be prepared for heavy traffic at weekends.

9 most popular places to have your picture taken in London

It might not be cool to do it, but sometimes you just have to line up for that tacky photo that everyone else is posing for. These are the ones that people back at home are most interested in seeing, where they have visible proof that you have actually been to the famous place that you claim to have visited.

As a light interlude this week we're featuring the most popular photo locations in London. I expect you'll recognise all of these scenes instantly and you may even have posed in front of these iconic London landmarks/objects yourself!

1. In front of Big Ben




2. On Westminster Bridge with London Eye as backdrop



3. By the Trafalgar Square lions



4. In front of Buckingham Palace



5. By the Olympic clock (Trafalgar Square)

6. Crossing the road at the Abbey Road zebra crossing




7. In front of Tower Bridge



8. Next to a solider in a red coat



9. Inside a red phone box



Photos: Espinr, PhillipC, Brownpau, King Chung Huang, reservasdecoches, Shht!, Rev Stan, clarkworldtravel,

The London Eye and previous iconic landmarks on the South Bank

The London Eye is consistently listed as one of the city's top attractions. Millions of visitors to the city come to take a ride (or a flight as the people behind it like to say) while many millions more line up at various points along the river to take their photo with the Eye as their backdrop. Even those of us who regularly pass the giant wheel accept it as an essential part of London and forget that 12 years ago it was absent from the city's skyline.

If its acceptance as one of the favourite landmarks of London was universal, the same cannot be said for the controversy that surrounded its construction. Planned as one of the Millennium projects it was overshadowed by the construction of the Dome at Greenwich and on many occasions there was doubt as to whether there would be the will or the funding to see the project through to its conclusion.

The very spot in which the Eye now stands bears witness to previous iconic structures that have long since gone. The Dome of Discovery, built for the Festival of London in 1951, was at the time a major attraction in the city. Nearby the Skylon Tower, a tall cigar-shaped creation that seemed to float in the air without any visible means of support, added to the futuristic landscape of the South Bank.

Both the Dome of Discovery and Skylon were demolished and sold for scrap soon after the conclusion of the Festival as they were deemed too expensive to maintain. Stand at Jubilee Gardens, the lawn by the London Eye, and you're standing at the site of the former Dome.

And those who consider the London Eye as a groundbreaking 'first' for the city might be surprised to know that a similar structure stood proudly in the city over 100 years earlier. The Great Wheel was erected in 1894 for the Empire of India Exhibition at Earls Court and was an impressive 94 metres tall. It stood for 13 years before being demolished in 1907. Somehow I suspect that the London will not suffer the same fate.

A ride on the London Eye takes around 30 minutes and on a clear day offers views across the whole city and even out to the green fields beyond. Visit our London Eye Tickets pages to book your 'flight' on this famous London landmark.