Richmond and Bushy: London's Deer Parks

Charles I brought his court to Richmond in 1625 to escape the plague and turned the hill above the town into a park for hunting red and fallow deer. At 856 hectares — 2,120 acres — Richmond Park is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. From King Henry's Mound in the gardens of Pembroke Lodge, which may be a Neolithic burial mound, there is a protected view of St Paul's Cathedral; the legend that Henry VIII stood on it has no evidence behind it. Next to Hampton Court, Bushy Park has Chestnut Avenue and the Arethusa 'Diana' Fountain, laid out by Christopher Wren as a grand approach to the palace, and from the mid-19th century until the Second World War Londoners came out for Chestnut Sunday to see the trees in flower — a custom revived in 1993.