St James Park, London

   40 Comments on St James Park, London

Compared to some of London’s other parks, St James Park is a doddle!! It’s easy to navigate, not overwhelming at all.

St James Park pretty much centres around a duck and bird filled lake – dotted with an abundance of trees (especially willow trees) and a whole lot of friendly and inquisitive bushy tailed squirrels.

The park is London’s oldest Royal Park, surrounded by three palaces.

Passing the Time

One of life’s simple pleasures – sitting in a park, thinking about everything or nothing, feeding the ducks, the squirrels or simply people watching.

Whatever you’re doing it’s probably something very simple – like the elderly couple who had fallen fast asleep against each other on a bench one afternoon, oblivious to the smiles of amused passers by. 😊

Things to Admire

Trees are amazing!!
Contemplating…

Duck Island Cottage

For some reason ‘The Hobbit’ sprang to mind the minute I set eyes on this cute little plot.

In 1841 Duck Island Cottage was built primarily as a home to the park’s bird keeper – plenty of peace and quiet here!!

Duck Island Cottage

Star of the Show – the Pelicans

Don’t let the photographs fool you. These birds are huge – really big!!

Everyone wants a picture of the pelicans, and everyone’s pretty much in awe of them because they’re massive, beautiful and not something we see very often living freely in a public UK park, especially not in central London.

The wingspan when these birds spread their wings is pretty unbelievable.

The pelicans are of Russian decent, first brought to the park as a gift to Kings Charles II from a Russian Ambassador in 1664.

Is it a tree, a den, a tree house or a collapsed tree….possibly all of these combined, the child in you will love it. Inside, is where I had my surprising squirrel encounter – a squirrel trying to climb up my leg. I guess that’s what you get for poking around in someone else’s house, it’s only right that the host would want to come and say hello!! 🐿

I saw someone feeding the ducks with monkey nuts – didn’t know they liked nuts, maybe they were leftovers for the squirrels.

London is not short on parks, its surprisingly green for a concrete jungle, very green indeed if you head to the right places. 🌳  I suspect most parks have been busier than usual under the circumstances – people want to get out, feel uplifted, stretch their legs, crunch some leaves, connect with nature and feel free – while social distancing of course. 🤗

Nearest tube stations: St James’s Park, Green Park, Victoria, and Westminster

Opening times: 5am – midnight

40 thoughts on “St James Park, London”

  1. Sustain | sustain-blog.com – London UK – Reducing impacts on climate change while achieving the conditions of sustainability is the aim of the Sustain blog. News, features, nature stories, alien letters and more are in this blog, which unfolds in the pandemic of coronavirus that we are facing today. Sharing this on Twitter @SustainableUni1 and LinkedIn, I launched it on 24 March 2020. Now it has over 100 posts. Enjoy!
    Sustain blog says:

    Absolutely beautiful! I twice went to the park but haven’t seen the photos you took. Thank you 😊

    Reply
      1. Sustain | sustain-blog.com – London UK – Reducing impacts on climate change while achieving the conditions of sustainability is the aim of the Sustain blog. News, features, nature stories, alien letters and more are in this blog, which unfolds in the pandemic of coronavirus that we are facing today. Sharing this on Twitter @SustainableUni1 and LinkedIn, I launched it on 24 March 2020. Now it has over 100 posts. Enjoy!
        Sustain blog says:

        You are welcome! Yes. It does change 😊

        Reply
  5. kagould17 – Not much to tell. After working for 3 companies over 43+ years (38 years 7 months with my last company), I finally got that promotion I had waited my entire career for……retirement. I have been exploring this new career for the past 7+ years and while it is not always exciting, the chance to do what I want for myself and my family instead of what my company wants has been very fulfilling. Early on, there was a long list of projects in my “to-do” hopper and I attacked these projects with a vengeance for the first 9 months of retirement. Eventually, my brain told me that this was not what retirement was about, so it took me another 5 months before my industriousness again took over and I attacked another line of projects, this time somewhat shorter and less complicated, as well as many new projects related to the family weddings in 2016. After going hard for 6 weeks and 3 weddings, my body was telling me to relax, then the flu bug hit and as soon as that was done with me, my sciatic acted up. No rest for the wicked. In 2020 and 2021, the Covid 19 pandemic changed the whole retirement gig. I was lucky to not be still working, for sure. I enjoy photography, gardening, working with my hands, walking, cycling, skiing, travelling, reading and creating special photo and video productions obtained in my first pastime. I may never become wealthy in any of these pursuits, but I already feel I am rich in life experiences far beyond any expectation.
    kagould17 says:

    We first visited St James on our honeymoon in 1977and have been back several times since. A great place to walk and sit and to watch bird life. Allan

    Reply
  11. shazza – My name is Shazza and I live in a small town in North west England with my boyfriend and our black lab Hugo and black cat Slinky. I work in a supermarket full time and in my spare time i enjoy reading,film,food( mostly eating it,I am a terrible cook!),taking photos,travel,camping,wildlife,spending time with my mates and hunting in car boots and charity shops for vintage teacups.This blog is hopefully going to be a collection of my fave things and musings on life,the universe and everything.Xx
    shazza says:

    What a lovely post. 🙂 I have been to st James park but didn’t manage to see the pelicans so close up. They are amazing aren’t they. Did you see any of the green ring tailed parakeets that live in the London parks? I saw some in Green Park when I visited London about 3 years ago. They were a surprise!

    Reply

    1. Yes 🤗 there was a particular tree where a lot of them seemed to be – and of course there were quite a lot of people all gathered/crowding to get a look/photo. I’ve seen them randomly in other parts of London too (not parks – just streets with trees) and remember wondering whether they were escaped exotic pets 🤔 I didn’t realise at the time that these birds live freely in the city🌆which is surprising, but lovely 🦜

      Reply

  13. This post brought back lovely memories of my London visit three years ago. I loved this park and Kensington Gardens. Stunning. And yes they little house is just gorgeous and its gardens…so beautifully English.

    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply