A Walk from Baker Street to Marylebone Through Regent's Park in Eleven Stops

In this guide

Most people do this corner of London as two outings: Regent’s Park from Baker Street, and Marylebone High Street up from Bond Street. They are one walk, and the park is the better way into the village.

This route starts at 221b, crosses the park past the boating lake and the rose garden, loops past Nash’s terraces, and comes down through Marylebone to Bond Street: eleven stops, about 5km, three to four hours with stops. Almost all of it is free.

The trap is Sunday. Marylebone Farmers’ Market runs 10am to 2pm only, and it sits at stop nine, 4km in. Leave Baker Street late and you arrive as the stalls pack up.

For the rest of the area — where to eat, Chiltern Street, where to stay — see the Marylebone area guide.

💡 The Short Version: On a Sunday, leave Baker Street by 10am to reach the farmers’ market before it closes at 2pm. The Wallace Collection is free and open daily until 5pm. The Open Air Theatre plays May to September only, and the park’s gates close at dusk, so in winter start early. Paddington Street Gardens at stop nine has public toilets.

The route

Map of the walk, numbered in walking order

Loading the map…

1 On the route, in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps → — all eleven stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

---

1. Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum

The statue of Holmes stands outside Baker Street station. The museum is two minutes north up Baker Street, signed 221b.

Open daily 9.30am–6pm (last entry 5.30pm, closed Christmas Day). Adults £19, under-16s £14, five and under free. Wheeled cases are not allowed in, which matters if you have come straight from a train.

The frontage is free, and for most people it is enough. Carry on to the top of Baker Street and into the park through Clarence Gate.

2. The boating lake

The first thing inside the gate. Follow the path north to the water and along the shore towards the Inner Circle.

Row boats and pedalos go out from the boathouse at the lake’s western end, late March to October, with no need to book. Half an hour costs an adult £10.40, or £6.70 before 1pm on weekdays and before noon at weekends. Boats start at 11am on weekdays and 10am at weekends.

Boats go out from the boathouse from late March to October.

3. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

The oldest professional permanent outdoor theatre in Britain, open since 1932, with 1,304 seats inside the Inner Circle.

It plays a summer season only, May to September, and you go in for performances, not to look round. Tickets start at £15, plus a £2.50 booking fee per transaction. Grass-bank seats are sometimes sold on the day at the box office: from 11am for matinees and 5pm for evening shows, two per person.

The entrance inside the Inner Circle.

4. Queen Mary’s Gardens

London’s largest collection of roses, in 85 beds around the Inner Circle. Early June is the peak; the borders and the ornamental lake carry it the rest of the year.

Free, inside park hours: the gates open at 5am and close at dusk. Dogs are not allowed in. Leave by the Chester Road gates and walk east to the edge of the park.

The ornamental lake, which carries the gardens outside rose season.

5. Chester Terrace and Cumberland Terrace

The reason Regent’s Park exists. John Nash laid the park out as a setting for stucco palaces, and the Outer Circle is where you see them.

At Chester Gate, turn north. Chester Terrace comes first, with the longest unbroken façade in the park. Cumberland Terrace, completed in 1826, is the showpiece: a run of columns under a sculpted pediment.

Both are private homes, so the pavement is the view. Where the two terraces meet, a gate on the park side leads back in to the Broad Walk.

Cumberland Terrace, the showpiece: a run of columns under a sculpted pediment.

6. The Broad Walk and the Avenue Gardens

The park’s main avenue, walked south. London Zoo is at the top of it if you want it; this route turns the other way.

Past Chester Road it becomes the Avenue Gardens, which Nash also designed: tiered fountains, formal avenues of trees and bedding changed with the seasons. Cyclists share the Broad Walk, so keep to the side.

The avenue runs dead straight to Park Square, and Park Crescent is across the road.

One of the Avenue Gardens’ tiered fountains, also Nash’s design.

7. Park Crescent

Nash’s stucco half-circle, begun in 1806, stalled when the builder went bankrupt after six houses, and finished in 1821. It frames the top of Portland Place.

What you see is Nash’s design. Almost everything behind the façade has been rebuilt, twice.

Regent’s Park station (Bakerloo) is on the corner, which makes this the halfway exit. Otherwise it is about ten minutes west to Marylebone High Street.

Nash’s stucco half-circle, framing the top of Portland Place.

8. Marylebone High Street and Daunt Books

Daunt Books, an Edwardian shop built for a bookseller and still one. Photo: Ewan-M, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Walk down the high street: low-rise, largely independent, and nothing like Oxford Street at its far end.

Daunt Books at 83–84 is the stop, an Edwardian bookshop whose main room is shelved by country, so the novels, history and travel writing for each place sit together. Open Monday to Saturday 9am–7.30pm and Sunday 11am–6pm.

9. Paddington Street Gardens and the farmers’ market

Turn right along Paddington Street. The south garden was consecrated in 1733 as an overflow burial ground for the parish church, and around 80,000 graves lie under the lawns. A 1759 mausoleum still stands in it.

Now it is a quiet square of plane trees with a bandstand and a playground, open daily from 8am, with public toilets off Paddington Street.

A quiet square of plane trees with a bandstand.

Marylebone Farmers’ Market is a minute away: Sundays only, 10am to 2pm, rain or shine, on St Vincent Street, Aybrook Street and the top of Moxon Street. Fish, meat, game in season, and fruit and vegetables direct from the farms.

10. The Wallace Collection

The armoury. Photo: gruntzooki, Public Domain Mark.

A national museum in a townhouse, and free. Hertford House on Manchester Square holds Frans Hals’s Laughing Cavalier, Fragonard’s The Swing and an armoury.

Open daily 10am–5pm, closed only 24–26 December. It is the one stop that works in the rain, and it has a restaurant and café in its glazed courtyard.

11. St Christopher’s Place to Bond Street

South to Wigmore Street and into St Christopher’s Place, a pedestrian alley of shops and pavement tables that comes out on Oxford Street under a purple clock.

A pedestrian alley of shops and pavement tables.

Bond Street station is two minutes along Oxford Street to the left. That is the end.

---

Where to eat

• The Regent’s Bar & Kitchen on the Inner Circle, between stops three and four, next to the rose garden.
• The Espresso Bar on the Broad Walk at Chester Road, at stop six — coffee, wraps and cakes.
• La Fromagerie on Moxon Street, at stop nine — the cheese shop, with a café that takes no daytime bookings. Open daily.
• The Wallace Collection’s courtyard restaurant at stop ten — the sit-down lunch on the route.
• The farmers’ market at stop nine, on Sundays.

For the full list, the area guide covers it.

The best day to go

Sunday, if you start early. Every stop but the market opens seven days.

What never closes: the park is open every day of the year, 5am to dusk. The Wallace Collection closes only 24–26 December and the Sherlock Holmes Museum only on Christmas Day. Daunt opens daily.

What is seasonal: the Open Air Theatre (May to September) and the boats (late March to October). Queen Mary’s Gardens peak in early June.

In winter, start by lunchtime at the latest. The first half of this walk is inside the park, and the gates close at dusk.

Getting there and back

Start: Baker Street (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City). Finish: Bond Street (Elizabeth line, Central, Jubilee). Halfway exit: Regent’s Park (Bakerloo) at stop seven.

On a Sunday the route also works in reverse from Bond Street. That puts the market 1km in rather than 4km, and finishes in the park.

Carry on walking

• Fitzrovia to Mayfair — Mayfair is just south of Bond Street, where this one ends.
• Hampstead Heath to Primrose Hill — Primrose Hill is across the road from the north of the park.
• King’s Cross to Camden along the canal — the canal runs along the park’s northern edge to Camden.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The Marylebone area guide — Chiltern Street, Marylebone Lane, Wigmore Hall and where to stay.
• Hampstead Heath to Primrose Hill — ends at a footbridge into the top of Regent’s Park, if you want the long version.
• The Mayfair area guide — straight across Oxford Street from the finish.
• The best parks and gardens in London — Regent’s Park against the rest.

Common questions

How long is the walk from Baker Street to Bond Street through Regent's Park?

About 5km, which is just over an hour of actual walking and three to four hours with stops. Add an hour for the Wallace Collection and another if you go into the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

What is the best day for the Regent's Park and Marylebone walk?

Sunday, for Marylebone Farmers' Market at stop nine — but it runs 10am to 2pm only and sits 4km into the route, so leave Baker Street by 10am. Daunt Books opens at 11am on Sundays. Every other stop opens seven days.

When is Marylebone Farmers' Market?

Every Sunday, 10am to 2pm, rain or shine, on St Vincent Street, Aybrook Street and the top of Moxon Street, just west of Marylebone High Street. It does not run on other days.

Is Regent's Park Open Air Theatre open all year?

No. It plays a summer season only, from May to September, and you go in for performances rather than to look round. Tickets start at £15 plus a £2.50 booking fee per transaction.

Can you hire a boat in Regent's Park?

Yes, from late March to October, with no need to book. Boats go out from 11am on weekdays and 10am at weekends, and the lake closes at 5.30pm in April and May, 6.30pm from June to September and at dusk in October. Half an hour costs an adult £10.40, or £6.70 in the first two hours of the day.

How much is the Sherlock Holmes Museum?

£19 for adults, £17 concessions and £14 for under-16s; children five and under go free. It is open daily from 9.30am to 6pm, last entry 5.30pm, and closed on Christmas Day. Wheeled cases are not allowed inside.