A quiet road
Stroll through Regents Park along the Broad Walk and you come to a zebra crossing with a cottage building across the road. There is very little traffic, just people walking or peddling their bicycles.
It is as if you have left London and arrived in a small town in the middle of the country. And this little town even has allotments where people come to grow fruit and vegetables.
Allotments in Regents Park
Best of all, Regents Park, has some wild, open spaces where it's possible to pick blackberries and lose yourself in the the shrubbery.
A wildlife area
The formal gardens are always neat and tidy, with flowers lined up in military precision, and contrast with the more gentle beauty of the sight of clumps of daffodils in spring, like people gathering together.
Clumps of daffodils
And daisies appear naturally in the grass which has been left unmown, as part of a plan to encourage wildlife.
Daisies
The wide paths, expanses of immaculate lawns and the symmetry of the flower beds may be pleasing to the human eye but along with industrial sized lawn mowers they create a hostile environment for hedgehogs.
And Regents Park is a vital breeding ground for hedgehogs along with a whole range of other creatures.
At the far end of the park near the canal the area has been left in its natural state and now there are other areas that have been left to nature to create a more welcoming sanctuary for wildlife.
Wild woods
Not far from the rose garden a pile of logs is a home for many different creatures, providing shelter, safety and even hospitality as many different diets are catered for with vegetation breaking down and different species of insects on the menu.
A perfect home
In the wildlife area there are paths that lead into the bushes so that children can explore and a pond - water is an essential feature of a healthy eco system.
Footpaths in the wildlife area
The pond
Regents Park: once a royal hunting ground, then farmland, before being laid out as a formal park.
And now playing an invaluable role in protecting the natural world.
Walk from Primrose Hill across the bridge over Regents Canal to the Park and end at Baker Street Underground Station
North London and Central London map
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