Walk in "billionaire's row"

Surely one of London's oddest streets, Kensington Palace Gardens runs behind Kensington Palace itself, connecting Notting Hill to Kensington at the Southern end along a street which boasts some of the grandest and most expensive houses in the world.


Mostly made up of embassies including that of Nepal, Norway, Russia and a rather odd blockish Slovenia at the Northern end, it is closed to all traffic other than that which can make it past the ominous security bollards, and its unclear whether you're even permitted to ride a bike.

Current residents include Lakshmi Mittal, the UK's richest man, and Russian Oligarch Leonard Blavatnik, who is reportedly worth around $7 billion, Lakshmi Mittal's daughter, and also Jonathan Hunt, the founder of Foxtons, who presumably bought in as some sort of a statement to the people who question whether Foxtons make loads of money.

For more on the fascinating street, click here.

Meet the birds of Round Pond

Round Pond, in Kensington Gardens, is a seven acre pond, created between 1726 and 1735 as part of new designs for the gardens by Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman which saw it placed at the heart of several formal tree-lined avenues.


By Victorian times, it had become a popular spot for sailing model boats, and remains a popular spot for this today, but it is also known for the variety of wildfowl it attracts.

According to the fantastically detailed 'Birding Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens' blog, Mute Swans, Egyptian Geese, and Mandarin Ducks, Tufted Ducks, Egyptian Geese and various types of Gull have all been spotted in the pond over the last month or so, whilst your author understands that life below water includes three-spined sticklebacks, roach, gudgeon and eels.

For more information, see http://hpkg.blogspot.com/

_{^Picture © Tony Austin used under Creative Commons^}