‘St James’s Park is a haven amid the craziness of my Westminster job’: Cathy Newman

Deciding which London park is my favourite is like choosing between my children. I live in south London and feel loyal to both Brockwell and Dulwich, but there’s something magical about St James’s Park. With three palaces in its view – Buckingham, St James’s and the Palace of Westminster – it’s like a fairy landscape. I love to stand on the Blue Bridge, with its view of trees and turrets in the distance.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, public parks would have those stiff, austere rose bushes, but the flowers here are beautifully curated to give the impression of wildness. The park holds many memories: taking Blair’s government ministers to the café; meeting Rachel Reeves there during the pandemic; cycling to it with my two daughters and having a picnic in springtime, the trees in blossom.

As a political correspondent I spent a long time in Westminster, holding power to account. No two days were the same, and I thrived on the adrenaline rush, but it was important to find time for myself by walking and winding down. Growing up, we went for long family walks, and I was obsessed with the book The Amateur Naturalist by Gerald Durrell. I kept snails as pets in my bedroom and dug a pond in my parents’ garden, using an old shower curtain as a liner and pondweed from a nearby river. Nature and the outdoors has always been an anchor for me, and this park has been a haven amid the craziness of my job.