48 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
the National Gallery—are stored, that it is quite invisible 
from the outside. There are storehouses for the bulbs, 
and nurseries where masses of wall-flowers, delphiniums, 
and all the hardier bedding plants, and those for the her¬ 
baceous borders, are grown. Of late years the number of 
beds in the Park has been considerably reduced, without 
any diminution of the effect. In 1903 as many as ninety 
were done away with between Grosvenor Gate and Marble 
Arch. There is now a single row of long beds instead of 
three rows with round ones at intervals. But even after 
all these reductions the area of flower beds and borders 
is very considerable, as the following table will show:— 
Area of Flower 
Beds. 
Area of Flower 
Borders. 
Sq. Yds. 
Sq. Yds. 
Hyde Park .... 
1742 
2975 
Kensington Gardens 
St. James’s Park 
Queen Victoria Memorial in 
345 
35 6 4 
30 
2642 
front of Buckingham Palace 
j- 1270 
Total 
3687 
9181 
An event of historic importance which took place in 
Hyde Park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. Various 
sites, such as Battersea, Regent’s Park, Somerset House, 
and Leicester Square, were suggested, and the one chosen 
met with some opposition, but finally the space between 
Rotten Row and Knightsbridge Barracks was decided on. 
Plans were submitted for competition, and though 245 
were sent in not one satisfied the committee, so, assisted 
by three well-known architects, they evolved a plan of 
their own. This was to be carried out in brick ; the 
labour of removing it after the Exhibition would have 
