Duck Island Cottage

Duck Island Cottage stands in St James’s Park, Westminster, with a wooden Swiss chalet design beside the park’s birdlife. Built in 1841, the cottage contrasts with the grand government buildings surrounding the green space. John Burges Watson designed it as a residence for the park’s bird keeper.

Living quarters once shared the building with a club room for the Ornithological Society of London. That society helped care for the ducks and geese kept here, continuing a tradition that began under James I. Early aviaries gave nearby Birdcage Walk its name and brought native and foreign waterfowl into the park. The former island lost its channel in the 1880s, then regained its separation when restoration work dug a new channel beneath the old bridge.

The cottage later became a home, a bicycle store and offices for the London Parks and Gardens Trust. A covered bridge, or loggia, connects it with the former club room. Arts and Crafts flower beds and a kitchen garden now surround the building, while birds still gather around this secluded corner of the park.