Autumn has undoubtedly arrived in London with beautiful scenery throughout the capital. A colourful range of yellows and reds have appeared amongst the greenery in all shades you can possibly imagine. Days become shorter and mornings foggy. Winter will soon be making its appearance. But there is still some time left to enjoy the beauty of autumn in London.
So visit Holland Park!
A great example of a wonderful autumn transformation must be Holland Park in West London. Holland Park surrounds a ruin of a mansion called Holland House that was built in the 17th century. Holland House was bombed in 1940, during the Second World War, but it is still an interesting sight that sparks the imagination of what it must have been like in the past. If you look up what Holland House used to look like, you can certainly still recognise the building nowadays.
Another special part of Holland Park, is the Kyoto Garden, a symbol of the friendship between Britain and Japan. Walking through the Kyoto Garden you could easily forget that you are actually in London, as it has such a different look to it. It is a beautifully designed and well-kept garden that looks especially great in autumn with all different colours. If you are lucky, you might catch a peacock or two in the Kyoto Garden by the way!
Holland Park is full of wildlife, I’ve never seen this amount of animals in a central London park. Beautiful peacocks and squirrels that are not shy of coming close to people. One squirrel even started climbing onto my leg! If you bring some food with you on your visit, you might be lucky to enough to get squirrels and peacocks eating out of your hand if you try to feed them.
The Dutch garden is another nice part of Holland Park. As it is autumn there are currently not so many flowers in bloom, so I would imagine that this part of the park will probably be more impressive during the spring or summer. On pictures I’ve seen of the Dutch garden in spring, it looks like it be a lot more colourful when all the flowers are in bloom.
Regardless of that I think the Dutch garden is a nice place to sit down, relax and soak up the great atmosphere of this park. The amount of benches throughout the park make it an ideal place to sit down and relax surrounded by nature in an urban area. There are so many, I would be shocked if you couldn’t manage to find yourself a place to take a seat!
The northern part of Holland park is more like an urban woodland with long, forest like pathways. This time of the year, this part of the park looks as stunning as you would imagine an autumn forest to be. The pathways dotted by yellow and brown leaves, surrounding you with lovely autumn colours. Walking around here you can picture yourself in a different location, away from the urban hustle and bustle. Personally, I love walking around here and enjoying the peaceful feeling of being surrounded by trees.
I was very happy to visit Holland Park, I don’t know why I didn’t get there before! It is such a lovely and quite unique place to visit when you are in London. With its forest like pathways, manicured gardens, a historical ruin, amazing autumn colour and lots of wildlife there should really be something of anyone to enjoy.
Planning to visit Holland Park? Check the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea website. Here you can find more info such as opening times, history and directions. I hope you will enjoy visiting Holland Park, please comment if you have any further tips or questions!
Pin it:
Very nice post 🙂