Bushy Park

Amazing park, I used to cycle and walk in it when I was a child and now I am in my 40’s it was nice to be able to bring my fiancée here to show her what it is like where I was brought up.
Tea rooms are an amazing addition to a brilliant park. :-)

This is a lovely and very popular park in the Richmond are 2^nd only to Richmond Park. It has some really nice woodland gardens inside. Very popular at the weekends.

Bushy Park is a great Royal Park lying between Kingston, Hampton Court and Hampton. It’s fairly flat, so excellent for cycling (or horse riding) around or across, and has a variety of different landscapes, from open bracken to wooded groves and plantations with streams, ponds and varied flora and fauna. There is a large kiosk selling drinks and snacks in the ‘main’ car park, and a small café near the skate park in the far corner nearest Kingston Bridge, mainly aimed at younger people. Next to the Lion Gate (nearest Hampton Court) is a great play area for young children that includes a big sand pit, always packed in the summer. It’s recently been re-​fenced to keep out the deer and other wildlife/​pets (and their droppings) and so is as safe as can be expected for kids to play in.
Also near the ‘main’ car park are a couple of lakes. In good weather there are often folk there with model boats, and there are always plenty of ducks/​geese/​swans to feed.
Once a year in May the road through the Park is closed for Chestnut Sunday, a procession of vehicles, marching bands and people, followed by a funfair and stalls near the Lion Gate, all in celebration of the flowering of the great avenues of horse chestnut trees that line the main thoroughfares through the Park. Check out the Royal Parks website (link above) for this and other events.

Bushy Park is a relatively flat place with a number of tree lined minor roads passing though it. It does extend to Hampton Palace which is worth visiting too if you are in the area. There are herds of dear which make any visit exciting if you manage to see them too.