Richmond Park, Richmond upon Thames
This is London’s greatest royal park, extending over 2,500 acres south-east of Richmond, so it only qualifies for inclusion in Hidden London by virtue of its distance from the city centre
The park is best known for its wide open spaces but has some luxuriant woodland, seen here in autumn
Charles I created the park in 1637, ordering its brick-walled enclosure so that he might hunt deer. The act was immensely unpopular with local people, even though the king allowed them to walk and to gather firewood here – a right that still exists. When Charles was beheaded, Parliament granted the park to the City of London, which prudently restored it to Charles II on his enthronement.
In 1751 Princess Amelia took up residence in the White Lodge (built as a retreat for her father, George II) and excluded the public from the park until the courts overturned the ban seven years later. Viscount Sidmouth – in his role as Deputy Ranger – introduced a series of plantations from 1819 onwards, principally of oak trees, but also Spanish chestnut, beech, hornbeam, sycamore and larch. As a result of public pressure Edward VII disbanded the Royal Hunt and opened the park to the public in March 1904.
George V granted permission for the park’s eastern section to be turned into a golf course, on the understanding that it was for ‘artisans’; who could not afford membership of a private club. The course opened in 1923 and was followed by another two years later.
There are now more than a dozen woods, the most beautiful of which is the 42-acre Isabella Plantation, extensively replanted with ericacious shrubs in the 1950s and 60s. Sidmouth Wood has become a bird sanctuary; over a hundred different species have been recorded throughout the park, and pheasant and partridge are artificially raised. Richmond Park has several hundred fallow and red deer, and a wide variety of woodland wildlife including badgers and foxes – although the official mole-catcher has been made redundant. Sheep ceased to be grazed in 1980. At the centre of the park are the Pen Ponds, where coarse fishing is allowed by permit.
The White Lodge, which has been occupied by a succession of princes and princesses, now belongs to the Royal Ballet school. Pembroke Lodge was the home of Lord Russell, the Prime Minister, and his grandson, Bertrand Russell, the philosopher. Princess Alexandra lives at Thatched House Lodge, which, in its present form, is largely the work of Sir John Soane.
Richmond Park acquired fleeting international fame late in 2011, when an amateur videographer recorded and uploaded a short clip in which a posh dog-walker is seen (and, especially, heard) desperately and fruitlessly attempting to bring his deer-chasing labrador to heel (see below). The video went viral and newspapers reported that the man had subsequently switched to exercising Fenton in Wimbledon Park, and was even considering changing the dog’s name, in a bid to avoid the unwanted publicity.
