At 2,500 acres, Richmond Park is the largest of London's royal parks and one of the great natural spaces in the capital. Herds of red and fallow deer have roamed here since the 1630s, when Charles I enclosed the land as a hunting ground. The park is entirely free to enter and large enough that the city disappears within a few minutes' walk. The Pen Ponds at the centre are a popular stopping point, and Isabella Plantation — a woodland garden of rhododendrons and azaleas — is spectacular in late spring.
Richmond Park
London's largest royal park, with wild deer since the 1630s
A story
King Henry's Mound in Richmond Park is protected by an ancient covenant that keeps the sightline to St Paul's Cathedral clear. Stand at this spot and you can see the dome, seventeen miles away, exactly as it appeared in the seventeenth century — no building is permitted to block it.