Hampton Court Park, also known as Home Park, is a walled royal park managed by the Historic Royal Palaces.Richmond Borough Council
The park lies between the gardens of

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

and

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

and

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it ha ...

in south west London,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, mostly within the

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

East Molesey Molesey is a district of two twin towns, East Molesey and West Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, England, and is situated on the south bank of the River Thames. East and West Molesey share a high street, and there is a second reta ...

, but with its eastern extremity within the post town of Kingston. In 2014, part of the park was designated a biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(with Bushy Park and Hampton Court Golf Course). It takes up most of the final (lowest) meander of the non-tidal reaches of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

and is mainly divided between a golf course, meadows interspersed with trees used for deer, seasonal horse grazing and wildlife. A corner of the park is used annually for the Hampton Court Flower Show and the part nearest to the palace has the Long Water — an early set of hydro-engineered ponds or lakes, fed by water from the distant River Colne, as are the bodies of water in the neighbouring park, Bushy Park.

Location

;Plant and animal life Hampton Court Park is a walled deer park of around (1.1 sq mi), with a herd of

fallow deer ''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer. Name The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes ...

, and has been open to the public since 1894. Verges by the

A308 road The A308 is a road in England in two parts. The first part runs from Central London to Putney Bridge. The second part runs from just beyond Putney Heath to Bisham, Berkshire. It traces four, roughly straight lines, to stay no more than fr ...

lightly scattered with deciduous trees line the northern wall. These trees, with few evergreens, continue across much of the park. There are three avenues of lime trees that radiate across the park in a crow's foot pattern from Hampton Court Gardens. One runs north-eastwards towards Kingston; one runs south-eastwards towards Ditton; and the third runs eastwards and includes the Long Water lake. It is documented

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

inclosed with a wall about 2,000 acres to form this park and Bushy Park for his purchase and reconstruction into an exceptionally grand house on the former manor house of Hampton. It formed what became before his death

, taken over by

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. The king was an avid hunter and had the park used for breeding rabbits and/or hares, pheasants and partridges.'Spelthorne Hundred: Hampton Court Palace, parks', in '' A History of the County of Middlesex'': Volume 2, General; ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 386-388. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp386-388 The inventory of Cromwell's goods made in 1659 records "about 700 deer", compared to "about 1,700" and "about 30 red deer" in Bushy Park. ;Mediaeval Oak

A tree, called the Mediaeval Oak (or Methuselah's Oak), in one of the tees for the golf course in the southern part of the park, is said to be 750 years old. ;Drained water meadow since medieval period The public towpath by the lowest part of the non-tidal

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

above

Teddington Lock Teddington Lock is a complex of three locks and a weir on the River Thames between Ham and Teddington in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. Historically in Middlesex, it was first built in 1810. The limit of legal po ...

lies in all other directions apart from the palace (west). An emergency conditions flood meadow but not a lowered "Flood Storage Area" most of it is in planning (policy Flood Zone 2 or 3, and mostly in long term flood risk zones ranging across its four categories (very low to high risk)Long Term Flood Risk
UK Government, 2018 High risk, affecting a small portion means that each year this area has a chance of flooding of greater than 3.3%. North of the road and a cluster of houses connected with the parks is a narrow set of Paddocks and Bushy Park; the

Royal Mews The Royal Mews is a mews, or collection of equestrian stables, of the British Royal Family. In London these stables and stable-hands' quarters have occupied two main sites in turn, being located at first on the north side of Charing Cross, and ...

graze horses on the park in the summer. The Long Water is a large

garden canal In the history of gardening and landscaping, a canal is a relatively large piece of water that has a very regular shape, usually long, thin and rectangular. The peak period for garden canals was the 17th and 18th centuries, by the end of which ...

constructed by Charles II, and given a curved extension at the palace end by William III. It is now the namesake of a lake of the 1730s in

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyd ...

(see The Long Water), and indeed other large garden canals at

Wrest Park Wrest Park is a country estate located in Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England. It comprises Wrest Park, a Grade I listed country house, and Wrest Park Gardens, also Grade I listed, formal gardens surrounding the mansion. History Thomas Carew ...

and elsewhere. It flows gently in the park roughly eastward from the back of Hampton Court Palace ending at the Golden Jubilee Fountain and is underground connected to a landscaped channel, the

Longford River The Longford River is an artificial waterway, a distributary designed to embellish a park, that diverts water from the River Colne at Longford near Colnbrook in England, to Bushy Park and Hampton Court Palace. Its main outlet is to the re ...

after the Upper Lodge Water Gardens and the Diana Fountain, Bushy Park.

Flower Show

The annual Hampton Court Flower Show is held in of the park. It is organized by the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

and began in 1990. Many prefer it to the better known

Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...

because there is more space, and plants and equipment can be bought at the show. As it is the world's most popular event of this type extensive traffic jams can build up. The show has sometimes been criticized for risking damage to historic features in the park.

References

External links

* *
Hampton Court Flower ShowFriends of Bushy & Home Parks
{{SSSIs Greater London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Hampton Court Palace Sites of Special Scientific Interest in London Middlesex

Location

Flower Show

See also

References

External links