THE MELIÁ WHITE HOUSE JOURNAL Nº019
ALBANY ST, LONDON NW1 3UP
JULY 20, 2017
Did you know…? REGENT’S PARK, A ROYAL PARK WITH A LONG HISTORY
Regent’s Park & its surroundings, 1900 / Regent's Park Zoo poster,1933
Considered
one
of
London’s many Royal Parks, Regent’s Park once belonged to Barking Abbey, until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, and took their property for the crown. From that point, it was a hunting park until 1811 when the Prince Regent (later King George IV) commissioned a master plan, consisting on building a palace for George as well as several terraces and villas for his friends. While the palace idea was abandoned, many of the terraces and villas were constructed. The plan changed and the park first opened to the public in 1835. Meliá White House
Regent’s Park was the world’s first scientific park. By 1826, Sir Stamford Raffles was making moves to establish the Zoological Society of London in Regent’s Park and created the first scientific zoo for “teaching and elucidating zoology.” He fell ill and the creation of the zoo was taken over by the Marquis of Lansdowne, who opened it as the world’s first scientific zoo in 1828.
“Charles
Darwin was a Zoological Fellow and regularly visited the park in 1831
”
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However, the general public was not admitted until 1848. Like every Royal Park, Regent’s Park is Grade I listed landscape, meaning its protected and can never be built over. An interesting fact, in January 1867, at least 200 people fell into the freezing waters of the main lake when the ice broke. At least 40 people died as a result and park authorities drained the lake to a depth of four feet to ensure it could never happen again.
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