A view of St. James's Park taken near the stable yard. Comprehending St. James's Palace, Westminster Abby, Whitehall & c.

St James’s Park is in central London with Buckingham Palace to the west, St James’s Palace to the north, Horse Guards to the east and Birdcage Walk to the south. It was opened to the public by Charles II who organised its redesign following a more formal landscape design which he had admired in France. This included a long canal.

Although the Park was a notorious meeting place for prostitutes in the mid-eighteenth century, it was a popular place for promenading, as seen in the engraving. Here colourfully dressed figures are shown walking along the Mall with St James’s Palace on the left and Westminster Abbey shown in the distance on the right. Stags and fallow deer graze on the right in the Park and cows are recorded as also being present in the Park. The formal layout is shown by the regimented planning of trees shown receding in the distance.

This etching was originally produced in 1750 by publisher Robert Sayer and reproduced in 1794 by Laurie & Whittle.