Kate, 26, and a journalist, has recently moved to Brixton, but is struggling to feel at home in the bustling capital, and is finding it a lonely and isolating experience. Hyde Park is perfect for a wide range of sports activities including horse riding, running and roller-skating, and football. At Park Sports Hyde Park you can try a selection of sports including tennis, netball, padel, lawn bowls, 5-a-side football, or take advantage of the nine-hole putting green. The Serpentine Lido is home to the Serpentine Swimming Club, and boating is also available if you prefer to be on the water rather than in it. The fish lie on beds of ice, turning it from white to pink throughout the day and reminding you that you should never eat pink snow either" As Kate dives deeper into the lido’s history—with the help of a charming photographer—she pieces together a portrait of the pool, and a portrait of a singular woman, Rosemary. What begins as a simple local interest story for Kate soon blossoms into a beautiful friendship that provides sustenance to both women as they galvanize the community to fight the lido’s closure. Meanwhile, Rosemary slowly, finally, begins to open up to Kate, transforming them both in ways they never knew possible. Explore all our activities on offer in the " Activities" section and see all of our great facilities in the " Discover" section.

There’s a taste of Spain, Morocco and Turkey, amongst others, prepared using the finest ingredients, many of which are sourced or foraged by Freddy locally. The landscape of today’s Hyde Park remains much as it has been since Queen Caroline’s innovative relandscaping. Hyde Park in the 1800s The memorial was constructed in 1983 and paid for by the Board of British Jews. The design was by Richard Seifert and Derek Lovejoy and Partners. When your eyes are glassy and your nose is dripping and your heart is full - you know you just finished a good book. This is the original Rotten Row, which is a corruption of the French 'Route de Roi' or King's Road. Hyde Park and a Queen’s touch

The Holocaust Memorial is a garden of boulders surrounded by white-stemmed birch trees, located to the east of The Dell. It was Britain's first memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Some readers are disturbed by blue language and sex scenes. Though the story isn’t entirely devoid of these, there’s very little of it. The text is accessible to anyone with a high school education. For a more tranquil visit, explore the winding paths and picturesque meadows in the north of the park or head for the rose garden, near to sandy Rotten Row – a historic route that ran from Kensington Palace to Whitehall. This unique memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales was opened by Her Majesty The Queen on 6th July 2004.

Big thanks to Simon & Shuster and NetGalley for a complementary arc copy provided for a review. All opinions are my own, honest and come from the heart.Queen Caroline also created the iconic Serpentine by damming the Westbourne Stream. At that time, artificial lakes were usually long and straight. The Serpentine was one of the first that was designed to look natural. It started a trend – and copycat lakes appeared in parks and gardens all over the country. Yes. You can use Hyde Park as a location for personal training or group fitness sessions - providing you have a current fitness training licence issued by The Royal Parks charity. With stunning views along the Serpentine and a large alfresco dining area, The Serpentine Lido Cafe is a great place to enjoy great food. Serenity is a striking bronze sculpture located on the south side of the Serpentine, near the Diana Memorial Fountain. The Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park London is an iconic spot to enjoy a swim during the warmest days of the year - from May to early September.

Kate’s next assignment is writing about the closing of a lido (i.e., outdoor pool and recreation center), where she meets Rosemary, a widow in her eighties. Rosemary has been a fixture at the lido since she was a child, swimming in its pool daily. Not only that, but she met her husband there, and she has healed swimming in that pool since her husband’s death. So the pool is a fixture, a grounding, for Rosemary as well. The lido is closing due to development, leaving Rosemary feeling lost. While not sheer perfection like Ove, I still called my mother-in-law at the 51% point to tell her she HAS to read this. The Hudson Memorial Bird Sanctuary is a carved stone memorial commemorating the 19th century writer and naturalist, William Hudson. He helped to establish the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and campaigned for wild areas in parks, at a time when they were always neat and tidy. Now, Rosemary's beloved Lido, which has been in existence since 1937 is under threat of closure. It seems a large property company want to buy the real estate it sits upon to build a gym and tennis courts for their tenants.

Kate is instantly charmed by Rosemary and the lido, and she makes this story much bigger than a small, forgettable one. She works with a photographer to piece it together through her interviews with Rosemary, and the community chips in, too, all in hopes of stopping the closure of the pool. The battle to save the Lido is ultimately what leads to them “saving” each other from their own sadness and problems There are moments where the sweetness goes over the top. I gagged when the Brownie troop joined the protest to save the pool, and I wondered how Rosemary could have dozens of sweet memories of George and not even a single resentful or ambiguous one. But these are relatively small concerns. Along the way, the reader becomes immersed in the community of Brixton. The myriad cultures represented in its population. Even the wildlife get a few mentions. We meet Rosemary's many friends. The gay couple who run the local bookshop. The man who sells her produce, a teenage boy who swims at the lido, a new mother who brings her baby to the pool. .. Another major issue I have with The Lido is the fact that nothing was a surprise, nothing was “new” either in the story or the way it was told. Every change seemed to follow an old script and was telegraphed well ahead. Yes it is a nice story and there are people to feel for, but there is no edge, no true surprising detail to grab me, the reader, and make me take note. Perhaps I am asking more than this book is purporting to provide, but when I read, I want something that might surprise me, perhaps treat an old subject in a slightly new way. This book simply did not do that for me.