Victoria Park

One of London's best kept secrets, Victoria Park is a fantastic place to spend an afternoon. The city's first public park, it was opened in the East End in 1845 after a local MP presented Queen Victoria with a petition of 30,000 signatures. The aim was to make it a kind of Regent's Park for the east and it originally had its own Speakers' Corner. The landscape has changed little over the years, with countless varieties of trees adorning the skyline: oaks, horse chestnuts, cherries, hawthorns and even Kentucky coffee trees. The park is split in two by Grove Road. The smaller, western section contains the most picturesque of the park's lakes with a fully functioning fountain and the imposing Dogs of Alcibiades, two snarling (if weather-beaten) sculptures. Retreat to the quiet of the Old English Garden, a floral haven brimming with flowers and shrubs, peek into the deer enclosure and let the kids run off some energy in the children's playground.