London’s Royal Parks

Right on the Thames where the Cutty Sark museum ship is moored, you’ll find this grand royal park, home to 17th-century landscaping, the Meridian Line at the Royal Observatory, the National Maritime Museum and one of London’s oldest deer enclosures.

The largest of the four royal parks forming a leafy chain from Kensington Palace to Green Park and Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park is central London’s green lung. Join swimmers in the Serpentine, art lovers in the adjacent gallery or pause at Speaker’s Corner on a Sunday morning to hear all manner of opinions.

Founded in the name of Britain’s 18th-century ‘Playboy’ Prince Regent, this is London’s most elegantly manicured park, where public lawns and seasonally planted flower beds encircle ‘secret’ rose-scented gardens, an outdoor theatre, a boating lake, and London Zoo.

At a whopping 2,500 acres, taking in woodland, grassland, planted gardens and ponds, Richmond is the largest of London’s royal parks. It’s changed little since its inception as a deer park by Charles I in the 1600s (although the land’s royal connection dates back to the 1200s). A sense of that royal history remains.

Deer, red and fallow, still graze and shape the park, their outline as distinctive as its ancient oaks. There’s a myriad of nature trails and cycleways, making it a fine place to walk, cycle and even horse ride. There are views of the city’s St Paul’s Cathedral-crowned skyline from King Henry’s Mound.

Other highlights in the park include botanical gardens at the Isabella Plantation, a blooming technicolor treat in spring and autumn, and afternoon tea at Pembroke Lodge Georgian mansion.

Surrounded by Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards Parade, Clarence House and Whitehall, this is the epicentre of London’s eight royal parks, whose formal flowerbeds form a backdrop to such monarchical pageants as Trooping of the Colour.