Pleasures of the Park
A fashionable parade and a scene of sporting contests, St James’s Park was first enclosed by Henry VIII. Marjorie Sykes describes the history of the park, including how James I kept a menagerie and aviary there, to which Charles II added pelicans.
St James’s Park has been the scene of a surprising number of activities since it was enclosed by Henry VIII out of a marshy piece of ground, flooded by the Thames at spring tides, on which stood a leper hospital for women.
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