The Long Water is a recreational lake in

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyd ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, created in 1730 at the behest of

Caroline of Ansbach , father = John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach , mother = Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach , birth_date = , birth_place = Ansbach, Principality of Ansbach, Holy Roman Empire , death_date = , death_place = St James's Pa ...

. The Long Water refers to the long and narrow western half of the lake that is known as the Serpentine. Serpentine Bridge, which marks the boundary between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, also marks the Long Water's eastern boundary. The Long Water and the Serpentine are generally considered to be part of one lake.

Geography

Originally the lake was fed by the

River Westbourne The Westbourne or Kilburn is a culverted small River Thames tributary in London, rising in Hampstead and Brondesbury Park and which as a drain unites and flows southward through Kilburn and Bayswater (west end of Paddington) to skirt undern ...

entering at the Italian Garden at the north-western end of the Long Water. The Westbourne ceased to provide the water for the Serpentine in 1834, as the river had become polluted, and so water was then pumped from the Thames. The water is now supplied by three boreholes drilled into the Upper Chalk. The first borehole is located at the Italian Gardens, the second at the Diana Memorial and the third, drilled in 2012 to a depth of 132m, is within 50m of the Diana Memorial. The Long Water runs south-east from this point to Serpentine Bridge, where the lake curves to the east, following the natural contours of the land. At the eastern end, water flows out of the lake via a

sluice Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

in the dam, forming a small ornamental waterfall at the Dell. The outflow has not historically maintained the waterfall, and re-circulation pumps were installed in the Dell, below the dam, to sustain this feature. The restoration work in 2012 restored the flows into the Serpentine and this waterfall is now restored as originally designed. Historically the river flowed due south from this point, marking the boundary between

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

and

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...

, but since 1850 it has been diverted into a culvert, running underground to reach the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

near Chelsea Bridge. The lake as a whole (including the Serpentine) has a maximum depth of 17 feet (5.3 m). The lake is often reported to be deeper, but bathymetric surveys by the Royal Park in 2010 revealed the design of the lake.

History

In 1730 Queen Caroline, wife of George II, ordered the damming of the

in Hyde Park as part of a general redevelopment of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Original monastic ponds may have existed in the location; these were modified as part of the 1730–1732 scheme to create a single lake. At that time, the Westbourne formed eleven natural ponds in the park. During the 1730s, the lake filled to its current size and shape. The redevelopment was carried out by Royal Gardener

Charles Bridgeman Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer who helped pioneer the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres an ...

, who dammed the Westbourne to create the artificial lake, and dug a large pond in the centre of Kensington Gardens (The Round Pond) to be a focal point for pathways in the park. At the time of construction, artificial lakes were typically long and straight. The Serpentine was one of the earliest artificial lakes designed to appear natural, and was widely imitated in parks and gardens nationwide. The lake achieved notoriety in December 1816 when Harriet Westbrook, the pregnant wife of the poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...

, was found drowned in the Serpentine having left a suicide note addressed to her father, sister and husband. Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin less than two weeks later. London Serpentine Bridge from East

The lake formed a focal point of the 1814 celebrations which marked a century of Hanoverian rule and re-enacted the British victory at Trafalgar nine years previously, and of the 1851

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

, with

the Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

standing on its southern shore. Following the introduction of more stringent regulations to protect the environment in the park, the relocation of the Crystal Palace, and the construction of the nearby Albertopolis complex of museums and exhibitions, large-scale events ceased to take place on the banks of the Serpentine. However, it was the location for the 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations, and a venue for the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. In the 1820s, the park was extensively redesigned by

Decimus Burton Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and R ...

. At the same time, John Rennie built the Serpentine Bridge to carry the newly built

West Carriage Drive West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

along the boundary between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, dividing the lake into the Serpentine (east) and the Long Water (west).

Environs

At the northern end of the Long Water are five fountains surrounded by classical statuary and sculpture in an area officially known as the Italian Gardens. A large bronze memorial to

Edward Jenner Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was a British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines, and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms ''vaccine'' and ''vaccination'' are derived f ...

, the developer of modern

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulat ...

, dominates the area; it was originally located in

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

in 1858, but four years later was moved to its present site. In recent years there has been an ongoing campaign for the memorial to be moved to the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. The Long Water is designated as a bird sanctuary. It has important populations of breeding waterfowls, and in winter there are many migratory visitors. A 2005 survey showed it as home to 90 species of moth alone. On the western bank of the Long Water, deliberately hidden in foliage, is a bronze Peter Pan statue by

George Frampton Sir George James Frampton, (18 June 1860 – 21 May 1928) was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combinin ...

. The "real world" elements of the play and novel were set in the park and in the surrounding streets.

Image gallery

Image:Kensington Garden Fountains.JPG, The Italian Garden; the fountains are fed by a borehole into the Upper Chalk. Image:Italian Garden fountains.jpg, Fountains in the Italian Garden Image:Italian Gardens panorama.jpg, The Italian Garden Image:Serpentine Bridge.JPG, Serpentine Bridge from the north bank Image:Lansbury's Lido.jpg, Lansbury's Lido Image:Hyde Park Dell.JPG, The

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

architecture of the

Dell Restaurant The Dell Restaurant (now trading as the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen) is a Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic ...

, situated on the northern end of the dam, dominates the eastern end of the lake. Image:Holocaust Mem Hyde Park.JPG, The Holocaust Memorial, immediately east of the dam Image:Cormorants in Long Water.jpg,

Cormorants Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven gen ...

fishing from posts in the Long Water Image:Under Serpentine Bridge.JPG, The Serpentine Bridge from below Image:Long Water birds.JPG, Birds sitting on poles in the Long Water Image:Solarshuttle & Knightsbridge Barracks.JPG, The Solarshuttle, moored in front of Hyde Park Barracks

References

Bibliography

External links

Kensington Gardens and the Long Water official home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long Water 1730 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1730 Lakes of London Lidos Hyde Park, London Parks and open spaces in the City of Westminster Kensington Gardens Caroline of Ansbach