St James’s Park, London: Pelicans, Willows and the Best View of Buckingham Palace

I came to St James’s Park the way most people do, straight from Buckingham Palace, with an hour to spare and no real plan. I have done it a few times now, and I still have not walked the whole park. An hour goes quickly here. A few steps off The Mall, the crowd at the Palace railings thins behind me, and within minutes London has gone quiet. It is hard to believe one of the most photographed buildings in the world is just over my shoulder.

St James’s Park at a Glance
📍 Where · Between Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards in the City of Westminster. Entrances from The Mall, Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road.
💷 Entry · Free. Only the deckchairs and the lakeside café cost extra.
🦩 The pelicans · Resident since 1664 and fed fresh fish daily between about 2.30 and 3pm, on the bank by Duck Island.
🌉 Best view · From the Blue Bridge: west to Buckingham Palace, east to Whitehall and the London Eye.
🌳 Oldest royal park · Henry VIII enclosed it in 1532. It forms the eastern end of a near-continuous chain with Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
🚇 Getting there · St James’s Park station (District and Circle lines) on Birdcage Walk, a couple of minutes from the lake.
🕙 Quietest time · A weekday morning, walking toward the Horse Guards end.

A few steps and the city disappears

The lake is the heart of the park, curving through the middle of it from end to end. Cross to the water and the planting closes in: weeping willows trailing into the lake, beds of silvery leaves, ducks paddling in the shallows. I found a spot under a tree and stood for a while. For somewhere a short walk from Westminster and the Palace, it is far quieter than it has any right to be.

A little further along, the path climbs and opens out, and the lake spreads into a wider sheet of water with a wooded island in the middle. There was a couple sharing a bench, a few people drifting past with coffee, not much else.

Duck Island and the cottage that caught my eye

That wooded island is Duck Island, at the eastern end of the lake, and along with its neighbour, West Island, it is kept as a sanctuary where the park’s birds can nest undisturbed. On the shore beside it sits Duck Island Cottage. The name made me grin the moment the guide said it, and the cottage lived up to it: a small storybook building, more like something out of a fairy tale than central London. It was built in 1837 for the park’s bird-keeper, and it is not open to visitors, so I only saw it from across the water. Getting to it up close is top of my list for next time.

Geese, swans and the 1664 pelicans

I told friends afterwards that I had seen a few ducks, which was not doing the place justice. There are ducks, and coots, and moorhens, but a great deal more besides. By one bench I met a pair of red-breasted geese, small and sharply marked in rust, black and white, part of the park’s long-kept collection of ornamental waterfowl. Out on the water, a mute swan came gliding past.

But the birds everyone comes for are the pelicans. They have lived here since 1664, when the Russian ambassador gave a pair to Charles II, and they have been a fixture of the lake ever since, more than 360 years. They are fed fresh fish every afternoon between half past two and three, on the bank by Duck Island Cottage, which draws a daily crowd. I missed feeding time on my short visit, one more reason to go back.

Fashionable then, open to everyone now

What I keep coming back to is how old all this is. St James’s Park is the oldest of London’s royal parks. Henry VIII enclosed the marshy ground here as a deer park in 1532. Charles II, back from exile, had it grandly relandscaped and, just as importantly, opened it to the public, walking the paths himself among his subjects. For a long stretch of its history it was the fashionable place to stroll in London, somewhere to see and be seen. Standing on the same paths centuries later, sharing them with tourists from every corner of the world, I liked the thought that the park has only grown more open. What was once a promenade for polite society now belongs to everyone.

The planting changes through the year, too, so no two visits look quite the same. My own strolls were late-summer green, but in spring the formal beds turn into something else entirely.

The Blue Bridge

The one thing I would not skip is the Blue Bridge, the low bridge that crosses the middle of the lake. It is the spot worth crossing the park for, and it works in both directions. Look west and Buckingham Palace sits framed by trees and mirrored in the water, rightly one of the most photographed views in London. Turn the other way and the lake leads the eye east to the willows, the pinnacled rooftops of Whitehall and the London Eye beyond. Two of London’s great views, back to back, from one small bridge.

Bubbly Tips for St James’s Park

• Time it for the pelicans. They are fed between 2.30 and 3pm every day on the bank by Duck Island Cottage, at the eastern end of the lake. Arrive ten or fifteen minutes early, because it draws a crowd.
• Stand on the Blue Bridge and look both ways. West gives you Buckingham Palace framed and reflected; east gives you Whitehall and the London Eye. Early morning or late afternoon light is kindest for photographs.
• Walk it as a link, not a loop. The park connects Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards and Whitehall, a short walk from Parliament Square. Cut straight through instead of following the busy roads, and the whole crossing takes around fifteen minutes.
• Take the tube to St James’s Park. The District and Circle line station sits right on the southern side, along Birdcage Walk, a couple of minutes from the lake.
• Pick your season. Late summer is lush and green, spring brings the tulip beds, and the planting is redone through the year, so it pays to return.
• Find the quieter corners. The western end near the Palace is busiest. Walk toward the eastern, Horse Guards end and the benches by the water empty out.
• Hire a deckchair if the sun is out. Deckchairs dot the lakeside lawns in spring and summer, for anyone who would rather sit than stroll.
• It is free. Entry costs nothing. Only the deckchairs and the café by the lake are paid extras.

Final Thoughts

I have spent more hours at the gates of Buckingham Palace than inside the park behind it, and that strikes me as the wrong way round. St James’s Park rewards slowing down: the willows, the geese, the pelicans that have outlasted a dozen monarchs, the fairy-tale cottage I still have not seen up close. I have only ever had an hour here at a time, and I have never once run out of things to look at.

Next time I will give it longer, get over to Duck Island Cottage, and time it for the pelicans’ supper. And then there are all the others, Green Park next door, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent’s Park, a whole run of green spaces I have barely started on. London keeps handing me reasons to come back.

Until next time!

xoxo,
Bubbly 🎈