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Alan K | all galleries >> England >> 2019 Day 02, London, England (Mon 09 Sep 2019) > 190909_163459_0549 Duck!
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09-Sep-2019 AKMC

190909_163459_0549 Duck!

St James Park, London view map

Like I said, St James Park is on the right of the road.

The park has an area of 23 ha. It was bought by Henry VIII in 1532, at which time it was a swamp. At that time, the palace originally called York Palace (later called Whitehall) existed to the east of the swamp.

At one time, that palace was owned by Cardinal Wolsey. However after he failed to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon for Henry, Henry "appropriated" the palace. In reality, it was a present from Cardinal Wolsey, but the "gift" was an act of desperation in the hope of mercy. In the end it didn't matter because Wolsey died of natural causes before Henry's courts could "pass judgement" on him. In the way that only Henry's courts could, of course.

Wolsey transformed the palace into the largest in the world (including that of the Vatican) before the construction of the palace of Versailles. (So where is it now? It was destroyed by a fire in 1698.)

Henry wanted to build a marvellous park to complement Whitehall Palace, but serious work would not commence until the reign of James I in 1603.

While Charles II was in exile in France, he took a liking to French gardens. Therefore when he returned to England he decided to recreate the park in the French style, including a canal.

In 1826, the canal was converted into a lake with two islands. And finally we arrive at the point of the photograph; the lake attracted aquatic birds like ducks and geese. Here we see an example of the ducks that live here.


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