Birds,  Lens-Artists,  London,  Monday walks,  Seasons

Signs of autumn in London parks

October 6, 2025 / 51 Comments

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Today the weather played a trick on us and pretended that it was still summer. The sun shone and the temperature climbed into the low 20s. Where better to take a walk than in one of our favourite London parks? Well, maybe in two parks!

Green Park

We started with a stroll through Green Park. This is quieter than some of the other central parks, with few obvious sights. It’s a popular walking route to Buckingham Palace, but relatively few people linger. However on this balmy autumn afternoon there were quite a few soaking up the sun on its benches or lawns.

One thing may strike you here; there are no flower beds. While other London parks boast beautiful floral displays in their beds, here there are none. It is said that the reason for this is that the wife of Charles II, Queen Catherine, learned that Charles had picked flowers in the park for another woman. In revenge, she ordered that every single flower in the park should be pulled up and no more planted.

I’d hoped to capture some autumn colour for John’s Lens Artists challenge, but it’s still a little early in the season. However perhaps there are enough splashes of yellow and orange in my gallery to qualify.

St. James’s Park

I have always loved this park, with an attractive lake at its heart and wonderful views of some of the capital’s most historic and beautiful buildings. It is the oldest Royal Park in London and was originally a deer park where Henry VIII would hunt. Later Charles II commissioned a redesign and opened the park to the public. It is said that he was himself a frequent visitor, feeding the ducks and mingling with his subjects.

And while you almost certainly won’t meet our current monarch here, you will see plenty of other people, tourists and locals, walking and relaxing in this green haven in busy Westminster.

In St. James’s Park

As we entered the park today, near Buckingham Palace, we were greeted by a bed planted with colourful backlit cosmos flowers.

We walked around the lake, stopping to photograph the birds and attempting also to capture the lively squirrels. You aren’t supposed to feed the wildlife here, by the way, but people regularly ignore the signs.

There’s a café with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating right by the lake at its eastern end, so we stopped for refreshments. No cake, Jo, but instead (probably) the last ice cream of the summer!

I visit these parks often; all these photos were taken in October 2025

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