The Serpentine: A Lake Born from a King's Whim

The Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London, is an artificial body of water created in 1730 to look completely natural, revolutionizing landscape design across Britain. Commissioned by Queen Caroline and built by Charles Bridgeman, it influenced designers like Capability Brown. In December 1816, Harriet Westbrook drowned in its waters. Since 1864, the Serpentine has hosted an annual 100-yard Christmas swimming race featuring the Peter Pan Cup.

London Β· from the walk β€œThe People's Park: Secrets & Untold Stories of Hyde Park” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, London W2 2UH

Who created the Serpentine Lake in London's Hyde Park and why was it revolutionary?

Take a good look at the water in front of you. It seems so natural, doesn't it? A graceful lake curving through the heart of London... But Nothing about this lake is natural. Every inch of it was engineered by a queen's ambition.......... In seventeen thirty, Queen Caroline, wife of George the Second, ordered the damming of the River Westbourne in Hyde Park as part of a grand redevelopment. The work was carried out by Royal Gardener Charles Bridgeman, who dammed the Westbourne to create this artificial lake. And here's what made it revolutionary... At the time, artificial lakes were typically long and straight garden canals β€” rigid, geometric, in the French style. Think Versailles. The Serpentine was one of the Earliest artificial lakes designed to appear natural, and was widely imitated in parks and gardens nationwide. Queen Caroline essentially Invented the idea that a man-made landscape should look wild!......... The lake helped set the tone for other prominent works, influencing designers such as William Kent and Lancelot Capability Brown. Every rolling English country estate you've ever admired... owes a debt to This lake.......... But the Serpentine holds darker stories too. In December eighteen sixteen, Harriet Westbrook, the pregnant wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was found drowned in the Serpentine, having left a suicide note addressed to her father, sister, and husband. She was just twenty one years old. Shelley had abandoned her for sixteen year old Mary Godwin... and married Mary less than two weeks after Harriet's body was recovered. Mary, of course, was already writing Frankenstein. One lake... tangled in one of literature's most haunting love triangles.......... Now, here's something most visitors never think about. Before the dam, the Westbourne formed eleven natural ponds in the park. That river still exists... but you'd never know it. Since eighteen fifty, the river has been diverted into a culvert, running underground to join the Thames near Chelsea Bridge. A hidden river, flowing silently beneath London's streets.......... And the lake itself? The Westbourne ceased to provide the water for the Serpentine in eighteen thirty four, as the river had become polluted. The water is now supplied by three boreholes drilled into the Upper Chalk, the deepest drilled in twenty twelve to a depth of one hundred and thirty two meters.......... One more thing... Every Christmas morning since eighteen sixty four, something wonderfully mad happens here. The Serpentine has hosted a one hundred yard swimming competition every Christmas morning at nine a.m. Author J. M. Barrie became associated with the Christmas Day race in nineteen oh three when he presented a gold medal to the winner. The following year Barrie presented the Peter Pan Cup, which coincided with the play Peter Pan's debut on the London stage. Barrie lived close by and had an affection for walking in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The same gardens, of course, where Peter Pan flies to in the story. That race continues to This day... one hundred and sixty years of swimmers plunging into freezing water, all because of a boy who never grew up.

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