“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.” – Winston Churchill
A Luxury Equestrian Experience in the Heart of London
The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park — the only hotel in London with views directly over Rotten Row.
There is only one hotel in London that sits with one foot on Knightsbridge and the other inside Hyde Park itself. I had walked past the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park many times over the years — on my way somewhere else, always. This trip, I was finally staying.
I chose a park-facing suite without hesitation. The view sealed it before I had even unpacked: my balcony looked directly out over Rotten Row, the most famous equestrian track in London. I had been told to watch for the Royal Guards exercising their horses in the early morning. I already knew the sight. I was never tired of it.
The hotel has been welcoming guests since 1889 — royalty, diplomats, heads of state. HM King George VI. Sir Winston Churchill. HM Queen Elizabeth II, some of whom arrived through a dedicated Royal Entrance that still exists. There is a small exhibition inside dedicated to them. The history is not decorative here. It is structural.
Then I noticed the ceiling. The pattern — I had been staring at it without understanding it. A map of Hyde Park’s paths, rendered exactly, directly above my bed. I found out later it was entirely intentional. That kind of thinking, I would discover, runs through everything at this hotel.
Into the Park
I had visited this corner of London enough times to have my own routines. Saloos Restaurant for what I feel is the best Pakistani cuisine in Europe. Sale e Pepe when I wanted something quieter. The back streets around Harrods rather than the front. But on this particular morning, I left all of that behind and simply walked.
Fifteen minutes across Hyde Park on a late October morning when the sun was still making an effort. Locals and tourists moving through together, dogs off leads, grandchildren with grandparents, swans holding their usual ground on the Serpentine. Autumn leaves releasing from canopies that were thinning by the day. The kind of morning that reminds you why people have always made their way to this Royal Park, in every season, for centuries.
I already knew the way — my mother had brought me to London more times than I could count, and this park had become as familiar as a neighborhood I had grown up in. There is a particular pleasure in knowing a place that well. I followed the paths toward the Serpentine, then over the bridge to the north side, toward the cobbled mews that has been home to Hyde Park Stables for over 300 years.
There is a quiet confidence that comes with belonging somewhere. With having earned it, visit by visit, decade by decade.
I noticed the tourists catching a sideways glance as I strolled through in my equestrian attire — tall boots, every intention of riding — and I will admit I didn’t mind it one bit.
The fifteen-minute walk from the Mandarin Oriental through Hyde Park to Hyde Park Stables — one of the best walks in London.
Hyde Park Stables — Horse Riding in London Since the 1700s
One of the last remaining working mews with horses in central London. When you arrive at the yard, that fact makes itself felt immediately — not as a marketing claim but as a simple physical truth. Stone, horses, the smell of a proper stable. There are not many places like this left in the city.
Hyde Park Stables — one of the last working mews with horses in central London, with over 300 years of riding history.
My horse that morning was Topper. The team — Elle, Ryan, Krissy — were warm and professional in the way that only comes from people who genuinely love what they do. We headed into the park and towards Rotten Row — and after twenty minutes or so of Topper and I quietly acquainting ourselves, Elle and I fell into an easy trot side by side. We stopped for photographs along the way — not in the way a tourist needs them, but for my own personal record of a ride I have been adding to for decades. As we reached the park side of the Mandarin Oriental, we turned onto Rotten Row at a pleasant stroll, the hotel framed behind us, the row stretching ahead. Then came the highlight — a smooth, unhurried canter all the way to the end. Nostalgic in the best possible way.
There is nothing quite like it. Old memories arrived uninvited, as they always do on horseback.
Rotten Row on Topper ahead, the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park behind us— a view that never gets old.
Three Generations of Horse Riding in Hyde Park
My mother first rode in Hyde Park in 1967, while studying at the London School of Economics. She came back in 1971, traveling through Europe with friends. Then again with her children. Then with her grandchildren.
In 2005, three generations of our family rode here together — my mother, my sister, my daughter, and me. My daughter was seven years old. Already a horse girl through and through. None of us knew then that two years later my mother would be gone. She passed from cancer in 2007. That last ride together in the park, none of us thinking it was the last, is something I carry with me.
I have ridden horses my entire life, in every country that has allowed it. But this particular stretch of ground, in this particular city, means something different. To canter down Rotten Row again is to carry all of it with you — from 1967 to 2005, and now this morning. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
After my ride I walked back across the park the same way I had come. The paths looked different now. My mind was somewhere else entirely.
The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Riders Package
The Mandarin Oriental has offered guests horse riding in Hyde Park for years, but the Hyde Park Riders package is something more considered — equestrian and luxury genuinely folded together rather than one simply appended to the other. That care extended to every part of my stay, and much of it came down to Anna, who looked after me throughout. She had a quiet way of ensuring that each element — the timing of breakfast, the spa booking, the small details in between — simply fell into place. The kind of looking after that you only notice because nothing ever needed fixing.
The ride itself is a private one-hour hack or lesson with Hyde Park Stables, guided through the park by expert instructors. Mornings begin with a full English breakfast, served either in the restaurant overlooking the park or in your suite. A £100 spa credit at The Spa is included, redeemable against any treatment. The equestrian amenities are quietly thoughtful: a pair of Holland Cooper riding gloves, and a bespoke hand-drawn map of Hyde Park highlighting your personal ride route — not a souvenir designed to sit in a drawer, but a keepsake of a specific morning in a specific place. For families, a Le Mieux plush horse for the young rider in tow. And for those who want to extend the experience further, the option of an exclusive portrait session with photographer Mary McCartney, including a private tour of her studio.
Worth noting for eagle-eyed riders: the saddle pads used for every Hyde Park Riders experience are embroidered with the Mandarin Oriental fan — the same fan that stops you in the lobby. I hadn’t noticed it until I was already in the saddle. Once you see it, it connects everything.
The map is the detail that stays with me. It is the kind of thing that only makes sense if you understand what riding in this park actually means to people who do it.
The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
By the end of the stay, London had caught up with me. The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental is world-renowned — it also happened to be directly downstairs, which made the decision straightforward.
Before I was shown to my treatment room, my shoes were quietly removed on a tray in the lobby. Slippers appeared. A small cup of tea. A warm towel. I chose a hot stone massage, a full-body treatment infused with seasonal essential oils, and I was still feeling it the next morning in the best possible way.
I could have stayed the rest of the afternoon. Part of me wished I had.
Afternoon Tea at The Rosebery
A friend joined me for afternoon tea at The Rosebery. I had the signature Mandarin Garden Rose tea — notes of lavender, rose, chrysanthemum, and camomile — and we stayed far longer than either of us had planned. The Rosebery has been doing this for a very long time. It shows in every detail, and in the complete absence of any sense of hurry.
Afternoon tea at The Rosebery, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park — the Mandarin Garden Rose tea is not to be missed.
Dining options at the Mandarin Hyde Park, London
The Jenny Packham Fan — and a Coincidence Worth Noting
In the lobby of the hotel, there is a fan. It was commissioned from British designer Jenny Packham to celebrate the hotel’s relaunch — a piece depicting a collage of green foliage, delicate organza leaves appliquéd and hand-embroidered with metallic threads, the rosewood sticks laser-cut in the pattern of the railings from the gates of nearby Apsley House. Having held her own wedding in The Ballroom, Packham drew on the hotel’s park-facing setting for the design. She has dressed Taylor Swift, Emily Blunt, Adele, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. The fan is extraordinary. It stopped me the first time I saw it.
What I hadn’t realised until I was back in the saddle was that I had already seen it once that morning — embroidered onto the saddle pad beneath me as Topper and I made our way down Rotten Row. The Mandarin Oriental fan, rendered quietly in thread, marking the ride as unmistakably theirs. It is a small detail, easily missed. But once you see it, it connects everything: the lobby, the park, the horse beneath you.
What I had not known when I planned this trip was that my stay would coincide, almost to the day, with a final fitting at the Jenny Packham flagship in Mayfair. A pink sequined gown — her Georgia design — for my daughter’s wedding.
The same daughter who, in the photograph I carry in my head, is seven years old on a lead rein at the edge of this park after our family ride in 2005.
I walked through Hyde Park to Mayfair for each fitting, between cantering on Rotten Row and afternoon tea and a spa treatment I was still dreaming about. Expert seamstress Viola at the Mayfair flagship was meticulous and wonderful. Much like the fan in the lobby, no detail was overlooked.
Some alignments are too precise to be accidental.
A final fitting at the Jenny Packham Mayfair flagship — the Georgia gown, for my daughter’s wedding. A coincidence connecting the fan in the lobby to the designer across the park.
A Final Note
The ceiling in my suite mapped the paths of the park below. The fan in the lobby was made by the designer whose dress I was collecting across the park. The balcony looked out over the same row where my mother rode in 1967, where my daughter rode at seven, where I rode again this Fall morning with Topper.
The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Riders package works because it understands what horseback riding in Hyde Park means to the people who do it. It is not a novelty. It is a thread — connecting something very old to something very present.
I can already picture a future generation of our family joining me here. Taking their turn down Rotten Row. The tradition continues — now with the Mandarin Oriental woven into it permanently. For those looking to make the most of London’s extraordinary equestrian offerings, read our guide to three ways to ride in and around London.
My daughter on Rotten Row in 2005 — the same golden autumn light captured in the floor-to-ceiling photograph hanging in the Mandarin Oriental, and the view from my suite.
To Book
The Hyde Park Riders Package is available at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London. Hyde Park Stables has over 300 years of riding history and welcomes riders of all levels from age four and up.
In collaboration with the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London and Hyde Park Stables.
Photo credits: The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park & Equestrian Destinations