Outdoor life and recreation in London - parks, lakes and city farms

More to London than just its famous buildings

London is the cosmopolitan capital of the UK, and apart from famous buildings, such as Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, as well as places of interest like Trafalgar Square, the city has plenty of parkland offering inner city recreational areas.

Primrose Hill, London (Photo: yaili)

Hyde Park

One of London’s largest and most well-known parks is Hyde Park.  It is one of the eight Royal Parks of London and is famous for its Speakers’ Corner where lively outdoor public speaking and debate can take place.

Speakers’ Corner (Photo: Wally Gobetz)

Visitors to London often choose hotel accommodation for the length of their stay and there are plenty of hotels to choose from near Hyde Park.

Hyde Park has a large lake known as the Serpentine. It is often used for sporting activities including swimming. In 2012 it was the venue for marathon swimming events in the Olympics.

Ducks, geese and a heron on the Serpentine (Photo: Christine Rondeau)

The western half of this lake is called the Long Water. It is divided from Hyde Park by a bridge and is in Kensington Gardens.

The Long Water (Photo: Jon Colverson)

Regent’s Park

Regent’s Park is a very large park situated in the heart of London’s north-west.

Regent’s Park Lake (Photo: S Pakhrin)

Its 395 acres contain many attractions and amenities, including London Zoo, Queen Mary’s Gardens, Primrose Hill, Regent’s Park Lake, and the largest outdoor sports area in London.

St James’s Park

St James’s Park is another of the Royal Parks of London with its own lake.

Pelicans in St James’s Park (Photo: Garry Knight)

Here you can expect to see ducks, geese and even a resident colony of pelicans.

Richmond Park

Richmond Park is the largest of all the London parks and is situated in the south-west of the city.

Deer in Richmond Park (Photo: Sam Greenhaigh)

It is important for nature conservation and has hundreds of deer living in it, as well as a number of ponds and streams that attract wildlife.

Green Park

Green Park lives up to its name because this park in central London has no buildings and no lake, but plenty of grass, flowers, bushes and trees.

Baseball in Green Park (Photo: nikoretro)

Its peaceful atmosphere make it a great place to relax and very popular with sunbathers.

London’s Commons and Heaths

London also has a lot of commons and heaths that make great places for walking, having picnics, relaxing and enjoying nature.

Hampstead Heath (Photo: Francisco Antunes)

Clapham Common and Hampstead Heath are two of the most well-known.

London’s City Farms

London has many city farms that offer a slice of rural life without leaving the city.

Hackney City Farm  (Photo: Rosa G.)

These farms often offer volunteer programmes as well as catering for children.

The River Thames

A view of the River Thames (Photo: Berit Watkin)

Besides the parks, commons and city farms, London’s River Thames offers all sorts of outdoor activities, including boating, water sports, wildlife spotting or simply strolling on the riverbanks.

Fly Agaric Magic Mushroom linked with Father Christmas

Fly Agarics. Photo in Public Domain

The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a brightly coloured hallucinogenic mushroom that is often used in illustrations for fairy stories, and perhaps with very good reason. The substances muscimol and ibotenic acid it contains produce intoxication and altered reality and consumption of this toadstool has been used to produce visionary states. Because of this it is included in my book Herbs of the Northern Shaman.

Because of this, and its known use by shamans of Lapland, Siberia and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, the fungus has been linked with the myth of Santa Claus. The Fly Agaric is coloured red and white just like the traditional costume that Father Christmas wears.

The Fly Agaric is sometimes eaten by reindeer and Santa Claus travels in a sleigh drawn by these animals. They fly through the sky and it has been suggested that hallucinations brought about by the ingestion of this fungus might have something to do with this fanciful idea.

The author and ethnobotanist R. Gordon Wasson suggested that the Fly Agaric was the mystical soma mentioned in the Rig Veda, sacred book of the Hindus. John Marco Allegro in his 1970 book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross went as far as suggesting that the Christian religion was founded by practitioners of an ancient fertility cult who were ritual users of this fungus and Biblical texts were inspired by visions they experienced. 

It has been suggested that part of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland was inspired by the Fly Agaric because it is known to cause hallucinations in which size becomes distorted. 

Hookah Smoking Caterpillar and Alice - Illustration by Sir John Tenniel (Public Domain)

Fly Agarics grow in groups under pine and birch, as well as under other trees.  They can be found in autumn and are common in some places. They grow in the UK, many parts of Europe, and across Asia, as well as in Canada and North America. 

Fly Agarics are reported to be edible after parboiling and the fungus has been eaten in some places. Recreational drug users and modern neo-shamans use the fungus as an entheogen, especially after the psilocybin magic mushrooms became an illegal drug in many countries such as the UK. 

The Fly Agaric is a fungus we all know about, if only from having seen it in fairy tales and in artwork.

Fly agarics in Rubezahl by Moritz von Schwind (Public Domain)

The Common Chameleon lives in the Algarve

Common Chameleon. Photo in Public Domain

One of the most interesting reptiles found in Portugal is the Common Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon).

It is green, yellowish-green or brown and lives mainly in bushes in scrubland. It can be found in the Algarve area in the south of Portugal and also lives in southern Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Morocco.

In Portugal the Common Chameleon is under threat due mainly to habitat loss from the continuing building projects that serve the tourist trade.  It is also caught for the pet trade but sadly captive specimens often do not live long.

The Common Chameleon feeds mainly on insects and spiders but is reported to also turn cannibal and eat smaller individuals of its own species.

Common Chameleons hibernate in the winter months when food is scarce. They dig themselves small burrows in the ground.

Common chameleons are usually solitary animals that establish territories but they come together for mating. The females lay clutches of eggs that they bury in the ground.  The eggs can take as much as a year to incubate. 

The Swallowtail Butterfly in Portugal

Swallowtail. Photo by Steve Andrews

Just over a week back I was happy to watch a female swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon) emerge from a chrysalis that had formed from a caterpillar I had helped rear. It had fed on rue (Ruta graveolens) that was growing in the front garden where I live in Portugal.

I watched this magnificent insect wait until her wings were dried and expanded successfully but it was late in the day and with the early darkness the newly emerged swallowtail had to wait until the next morning before I could release her into the sunlight.

I was surprised to see this butterfly emerge as late in the year as early December, although it can still get warm in the day when the sun is out and other species of butterfly are still flying.

The caterpillar of the swallowtail butterfly feeds on various plants in the parsley family, as well as rue in continental populations but in the UK the larvae will only take milk parsley. 

Swallowtail caterpillar on rue. Photo by Steve Andrews

Fortunately for swallowtails in Portugal the rue is often grown in gardens where it forms large clumps or small bushes.

Swallowtails are very rare Britain and only found in the Norfolk Broads where they live in the fenlands where their foodplant grows. The swallowtail is one of the rarest and largest species of British butterfly.

In recent years the continental swallowtail has been reported in the UK as well and it is thought to have crossed the channel as migrants. 

Edible wild plants found near the sea: Tree Mallow

Tree Mallow in Santiago del Teide, Tenerife. Photo by Steve Andrews

The tree mallow is a very tall species of mallow, hence its name, and is often found growing on cliffs and at the tops of beaches. It has attractive pinkish-purple flowers and blooms in summer.

Known to botanists as Malva arborea or Lavatera arborea the tree mallow is a biennial or short-lived perennial. It can grow to as much as 3 metres in height and forms a very thick stem like a small trunk. It is a handsome plant that stands out in its natural habitat.

The seeds are tiny nutlets and are edible and known in Jersey as “petit pains” or little breads. The leaves and flowers can also be eaten The leaves have a lot of mucilage and this is good for combating inflammation.

In herbal medicine the tree mallow´s leaves are steeped in hot water and used to make a poultice for treating sprains. Like other mallow species the tree mallow has a lot of mucilage in its leaves.

The tree mallow is listed in the book Food For Free which is Richard Mabey´s classic guide for foragers. It is a wild flower to look out for when on a coastal walk.

The tree mallow grows on coasts in the UK but is also found in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as Libya, Algeria and the Canary Islands. It is resistant to salty spray from the sea and is often found on the coasts of islands.

The tree mallow makes an attractive garden plant and will grow happily away from the sea. It will self-seed and is easy to maintain year after year.