Hyde Park Run, London (5.4 km)

Hyde Park runs about as flat as central London gets, climbing barely 30 metres in 5.4 km. The route finishes along the Serpentine but it does not stay inside Hyde Park: west of West Carriage Drive it crosses into Kensington Gardens and turns back at Kensington Palace. For a hillier run try Hampstead Heath; for a shorter climb with a view, Greenwich Park.

The Hyde Park loop

Hyde Park reads the same clockwise or anticlockwise; these notes go anticlockwise, starting at the south-east corner.

• Start and finish: Hyde Park, by the Achilles statue near the Hyde Park Corner gates
• Distance: About 5.4 km (3.4 miles)
• Ascent: About 30 metres
• Terrain: Paved and gravel paths, flat throughout

From the Achilles statue the path cuts diagonally north-west, passing the Reformers’ Tree after a kilometre — a mosaic set into the ground for the Victorians who gathered here demanding the vote for all men. Hyde Park thins out along its northern edge, and West Carriage Drive arrives at about 1.8 km, with the Italian Gardens just beyond it.

Everything west of that road is Kensington Gardens. The lake alongside changes name at the same time: the Serpentine and the Long Water are a single body of water, dammed out of the River Westbourne in 1730 for Queen Caroline, who had already carved Kensington Gardens off Hyde Park with a ha-ha. The Serpentine Bridge marks the join. The turn comes at 2.9 km by Kensington Palace, and the way back east passes the Round Pond and the Albert Memorial before crossing the road again below the bridge.

The last kilometre is the good one. The path drops to the south bank of the Serpentine at the Diana Memorial Fountain, runs past the boathouse on the far side and then the Lido, whose roped-off swimming area is the one part of the Serpentine not left to the boats and the birds, and finishes back at Hyde Park Corner.

Running it

Cycling is confined to named routes in both parks rather than allowed everywhere, which keeps most of this loop free of bikes; the horse riders get their own sand tracks, the North and South Rides. Crowds are the real variable, and they concentrate around the Serpentine. In winter, Winter Wonderland fences the Parade Ground off as a ticketed site, so that part of Hyde Park is out of use until it comes down.

Two circuits come to just under 11 km without leaving the two parks, which is why Hyde Park suits a flat steady session better than anywhere with a climb in it.

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References

• Hyde Park — The Royal Parks visitor information
• Hyde Park — frequently asked questions
• History of Hyde Park — The Royal Parks
• Monuments in Hyde Park — The Royal Parks
• Kensington Gardens — frequently asked questions
• Monuments in Kensington Gardens — The Royal Parks
• The water features of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens
• Hyde Park visitor map (PDF)
• Hyde Park Winter Wonderland — event information