Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk (West)

I find it sad that there is so little publicity for the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk. If you try searching for a map of the walk on the Net, you will not find one. I even went into the information desk at Marbe Arch and asked for one. The woman on duty who was a member of the Friends of Kensington Gardens handed me a map, which I later found to show the cycle route around Hyde Park but no sign of the walk.

The walk is about 8 miles long. It is described as a 'lopsided figure-of-eight.' The pivotal point is Hyde Park Corner. Imagine two zeros which touch there, forming the figure 8 turned through 90 degrees - the symbol for infinity ∞ - where the left hand extent is Kensington Palace and the right hand the most easterly point in St James Park and the crossing point Hyde Park Corner. The intersecting point is at 43 mins 6 seconds. At this point, you can decide to continue with the East section of the walk (published shortly) or turn back towards the start at High Street Kensington.

Here are the maps in PDF for you to download if you wish:

Kensington Gardens
Hyde Park

The idea of the walk was originally to join up places with associations for Diana, but I think this objective was not well met and all we have is a very good walk covering four royal parks - Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St James Park. Undoubtedly Kensington Palace is important - after all, that was where Diana lived with her sons. She was often seen by locals being driven in and out of the palace, but less often spotted incognito on one of her breakout shopping trips in disguise. It was from Kensington Palace that I witnessed the funeral cortege as it was prepared in the early morning and later wound its way along South Carriage Drive. My thoughts of that fateful time are documented within hours of the funeral itself on my web site, which received several hundred hits as one of the first sites on the Net where photographs were published.

I met Diana on a few occasions when I shadowed her during shopping expeditions to Peter Jones, where I was merchandise manager in the 1980's. That was before her marriage, when she was able to come accompanied by one detective, before she was hounded by the paparazzi, and before everything changed in London after the bomb at Harrods.

This is half of the Diana walk - actually parts 1 and 4. I have done because the walk is a long one and would take several hours to complete. Part 1 is from Kensington Palace to Hyde Park Corner. Part 4 follows immediately, and covers the return section to Kensington to complete the western part of the loop. This circular walk is 5 miles long, all wheelchair accessible, completely flat, and with good toilet and refreshment facilities throughout.

Parts 2 and 3 will be a separate walk to follow - from Hyde Park Corner through Green Park and St James Park and back. You can skip to the eastern part at Hyde Park Corner, and then return to where you left this walk if you want to do the whole in one day.

This walk starts and finishes at High Street Kensington Underground (Circle & District Lines Zone 1) but passes Lancaster Gate (Central Line) and Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly Line).