I often hear visitors to London say that the thing they like most are the public parks and as a local I really appreciate them too.

I'm not sure exactly how many parks there are in London, but I can count 14 off the top of my head. Some of these parks are known as Royal Parks.

They are called Royal Parks because they are land previously owned by Kings and Queens of England for the recreation of the Royal family. Recreation in those days was mostly hunting, but I wonder what kind of wild animals lived in these parks in the middle of London.

The public (you and me) don't actually have legal rights to use the parks, but with the increasing urbanisation of London 8 of these parks have been preserved as public parks and cover 22kmsq of London. They are:

• Bushy Park
• Green Park
• Greenwich Park
• Hyde Park
• Kensington Gardens
• Regent's Park 
• Richmond Park
• St. James's Park 
• Brompton Cemetary

My favourite of all of these is Green Park - I don't know why, but I used to work near there and every lunch time in summer I would buy a sandwich and go down to the park, rent a deck chair and sit in the sun and watch the world go by. There's also a band stand in the park so sometimes you can hear a brass band playing there.

Probably the most famous park is Hyde Park - it's also one of the largest and is located in Central London. It has a boating lake and people still ride their horses there and do all kinds of sports. It also famous for Speakers' Corner where public speaking is allowed, and the memorial for Princess Diana.

If you get to visit London one day I would recommend that you try to visit one or two of the parks, especially if you visit in the summer time. 

What are the parks like where you live? I'd love to hear from you!

Fadi