Hyde Park: free audio guide, opening times and what to see

Hyde Park is central London’s great public park: 142 hectares of grass, trees and water, with the Serpentine lake in the middle, Speakers’ Corner in one corner and the Diana Memorial Fountain on the far shore. Entry is free and the gates are open every day from 5am to midnight. This free audio guide is made to be heard by the lake.

What the Hyde Park audio guide tells you

The audio guide runs to about 3 minutes and is meant to be played standing on the bank of the Serpentine, with the boats in front of you. It doesn’t try to walk you round all 142 hectares. It tells you where you are, how a royal hunting ground became “the people’s park”, and points you to 3 places worth the walk. These are its stops:

Hyde Park opening times and getting there

Hyde Park is a public park, so there’s no ticket and no ticket office. The pedestrian and vehicle gates open from 5am to midnight every day of the year. When there’s a big event or maintenance work, parts of the park close, and the notice goes up on The Royal Parks website.

To start at Speakers’ Corner, get off at Marble Arch, in the north-east corner. To start with Achilles, use Hyde Park Corner, in the south-east.

If you’re visiting on Sunday 11 October 2026, the Royal Parks Half Marathon is on that day: roads inside the park are closed from 00:01 on Sunday to 5am on Monday and all cycle paths are suspended. The park stays open as usual, but you may be sent to a different gate.

What to see in Hyde Park: the Serpentine, the Diana fountain and Speakers’ Corner

The Serpentine and its boats

The Serpentine is the heart of the park. Queen Caroline, wife of George II, created it around 1730 by damming the Westbourne stream, and it was one of the first artificial lakes designed to look natural, all curves instead of straight lines. Copycat lakes followed in parks and gardens across the country. There are cafés along the banks, and it’s worth looking for the heron under the bridge.

Rowing boats, pedalos and electric pedalos are for hire all year from 10am: daily from late March to October, and Wednesday to Sunday from November to March, weather permitting. They close at 6pm in April and May, 8pm from June to August, 7pm in September and at dusk from October to March. Each boat takes up to 4 adults. Prices are per person as of 29 September 2026; electric pedalos are charged per boat, £52 for 30 minutes.

In the south-west corner of the lake is the Lido, a 100m swimming area and home to the Serpentine Swimming Club, Britain’s oldest open-water swimming club. Public swimming is seasonal: weekends from mid-May, then daily from June to mid-September, 10am to 6pm. The 2026 season ended on 24 September and public swimming returns in 2027. Swimming anywhere else in the lake is not allowed.

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain

Follow the south bank west, about 700m from the middle of the park, and you reach the memorial fountain to Diana, Princess of Wales, opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 6 July 2004. It’s made of 545 pieces of Cornish granite, each shaped by computer-controlled machines and fitted together by hand. The water leaves the highest point, flows downhill in two directions and meets again in a calm pool at the bottom. 3 bridges take you into the middle, and you’re welcome to sit on the edge and cool your feet.

As of 29 September 2026, the fountain is closed after a major fault in the park’s water system, with no reopening date yet. When it’s open, the hours change with the season: April to August, 10am to 8pm; September, until 7pm; March and October, until 6pm; November to February, 10am to 4pm. No dogs, except assistance dogs, and no alcohol.

Speakers’ Corner

In the north-east corner, by Marble Arch and Oxford Street, is Speakers’ Corner. The Tyburn gallows stood close by from 1196 until 1783, and more than 50,000 people were executed there. Every condemned prisoner could make a final speech, and the habit of speaking out stayed on in the park. An act of Parliament in 1872 set this part of Hyde Park aside for public speaking. Karl Marx, Lenin and George Orwell all spoke here.

The time to go is Sunday morning. Anyone can turn up unannounced and talk about anything, as long as it’s lawful, and it’s not unusual to find a crowd listening.

Hyde Park history: from royal hunting ground to the people’s park

In 1536, Henry VIII acquired this land from the monks of Westminster Abbey to hunt deer. From 1603, James I let in a select group of courtiers, and in 1637 Charles I opened it to everyone. In 1665, during the Great Plague, Londoners fleeing the City camped here.

William III had 300 oil lamps put up along the road between St James’s Park and Hyde Park, making it the first artificially lit road in the country. That road is Rotten Row, a corruption of “Route de Roi”, the King’s Road, and it’s still a sandy riding track today.

In 1851 the park hosted the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace: 100,000 objects, more than 15,000 contributors and 6 million visitors. Where the glass palace stood there are now football pitches and tennis and padel courts you can book. And on 21 June 1908, 250,000 women marched here to demand the vote, with 20 speakers’ platforms.

That’s why it’s called “the people’s park”: the suffragettes spoke here, the Rolling Stones played by the lake, the UK’s first Pride march started here and Nelson Mandela took the stage.

Monuments and quiet corners

By Hyde Park Corner stands Achilles, the tribute to the Duke of Wellington. It’s 18ft tall, was unveiled on 18 June 1822 and was cast from 33 tonnes of bronze from cannons captured in his campaigns. It was the first statue in the park, and because it was completely nude, a small fig leaf was added soon afterwards. Next to it, Apsley Gate (1826-1829) was designed by Decimus Burton when he was just 25, and its friezes copy the Parthenon marbles.

Beside Rotten Row is the Rose Garden, with the Boy and Dolphin fountain (1862) and the Huntress fountain (1906). The 7 July Memorial remembers the 52 people killed in the 2005 London bombings with 52 stainless steel pillars, each 3.5m high, and among white-stemmed birches east of The Dell is the Holocaust Memorial of 1983, the first in Britain. The bandstand, built in 1869, is one of the oldest in the country.

A few park rules worth knowing: picnics are welcome but barbecues aren’t; dogs go on a lead in the Rose Garden and around the Serpentine; and please don’t feed the wildlife. There are 4 main cafés, including the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen and the Lido Café, plus kiosks around the park.

Accessibility and Winter Wonderland 2026

The Diana fountain has a wheelchair-friendly path, and the park map marks the accessible toilets. Blue Badge holders park free for up to 4 hours in the car parks and in the dedicated bays on West Carriage Drive and South Carriage Drive. On the lake, electric pedalos are there for anyone who needs a little help pedalling.

In winter the park fills with lights and rides for Winter Wonderland, from 19 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. Tickets are booked on its website, and if you spend at least £25 online on rides or food, your entry is free.

Combine it with other London audio guides

Hyde Park sits on the west side of central London. The closest is Buckingham Palace, about 1.7km east-south-east of the middle of the park in a straight line. Keep heading east and you reach the London Eye, about 3.1km away across the river.

The British Museum is about 2.8km east-north-east, out through Marble Arch and along Oxford Street, and Tower Bridge is about 6.1km east. Walking is always a bit further than the straight line. You’ll find them all in our London audio guides.