Green Park, London Walking from the Buckingham Palace gates toward Oxford Street.
Henry James on Green Park (1888)
If the Green Park is familiar, there is still less of the exclusive in its pendant, as one may call it, — for it literally hangs from the other, down the hill, — the remnant of the former garden of the queer, shabby old palace whose black, inelegant face stares up St. James's Street. This popular resort has a great deal of character, but I am free to confess that much of its character comes from its nearness to the Westminster slums. It is a park of intimacy, and perhaps the most democratic corner of London, in spite of its being in the royal and mihtary quarter and close to all kinds of stateliness. There are few hours of the day when a thousand smutty children are not sprawling over it, and the unemployed lie thick on the grass and cover the benches with a brotherhood of greasy corduroys. [23]
Other views
Other Discussions of London by Henry James
- The Romance of a Winter Afternoon in London
- The Fog, Smog, and Skies over London
- London and Paris Compared
- Clumsy, Brutal, Ugly, Wonderful London
Photograph George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
James, Henry. English Hours. Illustrated by Joseph Pennell. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1905. Hathi Trust Digital Library online version of a copy in the Library of Congress. Web. 12 April 2020.
Richard Saul Wurman. London Access. 3rd edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
Created 12 July 2001
Last modified 12 April 2020