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]] Hyde Park is one of the largest Parks in central London , England and one of the Royal Parks Of London , famous for its Speakers' Corner . The park is divided in two by the Serpentine Lake . The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens , which is widely assumed to be part of Hyde Park, but is technically separate. Hyde Park is 350 acres (1.4 km&2) and Kensington Gardens is 275 acres (1.1 km&2) giving an overall area of 625 acres (2.5 km&2). The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which The Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton . The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists , The Suffragettes and The Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park And Regents Park Bombings , two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses. HISTORY In 1536 permitted limited access to gentlefolk, appointing a ranger to take charge. Charles I created the Ring (north of the present Serpentine boathouses) and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1689, when William III moved his habitation to Nottingham House in the village of Kensington on the far side of Hyde Park, and renamed it Kensington Palace , he had a drive laid out across its south edge, leading to St. James's Palace .; this ''Route du Roi'' came to be corrupted to Rotten Row , which still exists as a wide straight gravelled carriage track leading west from Hyde Park Corner across the south boundary of Hyde Park. Public transportation that was entering London from the west paralleled the King's private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the Park. The first coherent landscaping was undertaken by (1826). GRAND ENTRANCE "The Grand Entrance to the park, at . "The gates were manufactured by Messrs. Bramah. They are of iron, bronzed, and fixed or hung to the piers by rings of gun-metal. The design consists of a beautiful arrangement of the Greek honeysuckle ornament; the parts being well defined, and the raffles of the leaves brought out in a most extraordinary manner. A rose garden, designed by Colvin & Moggeridge, was added in 1994. GardenVisit.com:Hyde Park SITES OF INTEREST Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the northeast corner near Marble Arch ), which is the former site of the Tyburn gallows, and Rotten Row , which is the northern boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. To the southeast is Hyde Park Corner . South of the Serpentine Lake is the Diana, Princess Of Wales Memorial , an oval stone ring fountain opened on 6 July 2004 . A magnificent specimen of a botanical curiosity is the Weeping Beech, '' Fagus Sylvatica Pendula '', cherished as "the upside-down tree" (''illustration''). Opposite Hyde Park Corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough , which offers its top suite at £8,000 per night. '']] , was the home of Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge Of The Light Brigade . Parkes was later Inspector of the Park Constables of the Park and died in the Lodge on 14 November 1864. The photography for the Beatles album '' Beatles For Sale '' was taken at Hyde Park in autumn of 1964. Concerts concert in Hyde Park on 2 July 2005 ]] Hyde Park has been the venue for some famous rock concerts, including those featuring Party In The Park . HYDE PARK IN FICTION In Volume II of Alan Moore 's Graphic Novel , '' The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen '', Allan Quatermain implies that Hyde Park is named in honour of Mr. Edward Hyde, the bestial alter ego of Dr. Henry Jekyll, the titular character(s) of Robert Louis Stevenson 's novella, '' The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde ''. This was a posthumous honour, done so to recognize Hyde's death while attempting to stop invaders from the planet Mars in their Advance Upon London (adapted from H. G. Wells ' '' The War Of The Worlds ''). In this story, Hyde Park was originally named "Serpentine Park". In '' The Face Of Evil '' (a Serial in the British Science Fiction Television series '' Doctor Who ''), The Doctor is attempting to reach Hyde Park when he lands on an alien planet. Hyde Park is also the setting for Anne Perry 's Victorian murder mystery, '' The Hyde Park Headsman '' in which several murder victims are found beheaded in or near the park under strange circumstances, causing near-hysterical terror in the residents of 1892 London. Superintendent Thomas Pitt is charged with discovering the murderer before he/she can strike again. Hyde Park features as a setting in '' The Eye In The Door '' by British novelist Pat Barker . Chapter one in particular alludes to the Park's history as a Gay Cruising Ground before the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967. It featured where Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver fight in the 2004 to '' Bridget Jones Diary ''. Also, In Destroy All Humans! 2 , it is an area in Albion, a fictionalized London. TRANSPORT There are five London Underground stations located on or near the edges of Hyde Park - in clockwise order starting from the south-east:
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