London has eight Royal Parks covering more than 5,000 acres, plus a heath that is not one of them and is better than most of them. Nearly every guide lists all nine with their acreages and leaves you no wiser, because size is the least useful thing about a park.
These places are not interchangeable. One of them has 2,500 acres and wild deer. One is a triangle of grass you cross in eight minutes. Picking the wrong one is how an afternoon gets wasted.
Read this before Richmond or Bushy
Two of London’s parks have free roaming wild deer, and every autumn people are injured because they treat them as scenery.
The Royal Parks ask visitors to stay at least 50 metres from the deer, in the rut as well as out of it. Their position on why is blunt: incidents almost exclusively happen when people get closer than that 50 metres.
The rut starts at the end of September and runs to early November. The Royal Parks put a red stag at around 25 stone and 30mph, and compare being hit by one to being hit by a motorcycle. The Royal Parks describe the rut as one of UK wildlife’s greatest spectacles, which it is, from 50 metres away with a long lens.
On dogs, the advice is stronger than most people realise. The guidance is to keep distance, respect space and leash dogs, with dogs on short leads from March to September. During the rutting and birthing seasons the Royal Parks recommend walking your dog somewhere other than Richmond or Bushy altogether.
Worth knowing separately: Bushy Park holds a deer cull from 1 September for six weeks, and while it runs the vehicle gates lock at 7pm and the pedestrian gates at 10.30pm on weekdays, reopening at 8am, with Saturday and Sunday as normal.
The big two
Richmond Park
- Address
- Richmond, south west London
- Nearest
- Richmond, North Sheen or Norbiton, each a 15 to 25 minute walk to a gate
- Hours
- Pedestrian gates 24 hours, except during the six week culls in November and February. Vehicle gates 7am in summer, 7.30am in winter, closing at dusk
- Price
- Free, and the car parks are free too
- Standing
- 2,500 acres, the largest of the eight Royal Parks, with over 630 red and fallow deer and the Isabella Plantation
How to get in
The pedestrian gates do not close, except during the six week deer culls from November to early December and February to early March, when they shut between 8pm and 7.30am on every night but Friday and Saturday. The vehicle gates close at dusk rather than at a fixed hour, so the time moves through the year and a car left inside is a real problem. The Isabella Plantation is the reason to come in late April and May.
Bushy Park
- Address
- Hampton, south west London
- Nearest
- Hampton Wick or Teddington
- Hours
- During the September cull, six weeks from 1 September: pedestrian gates 8am to 10.30pm and vehicle gates 8am to 7pm on weekdays, with Saturday and Sunday as normal. The Royal Parks show the cull hours in place of the normal ones while it runs
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- Over 1,000 acres and the second largest Royal Park, also with wild deer
How to get in
Richmond's quieter twin, and the better one if you want the deer and the space without the crowd that Richmond now carries at weekends. Same 50 metre rule, same rut. The gates close earlier during the September cull, so check before an evening walk.
Park guides in detail
The one that is not a Royal Park
Hampstead Heath
- Address
- Hampstead, north London
- Nearest
- Hampstead, Gospel Oak or Hampstead Heath
- Price
- Free to enter, swimming is ticketed
- Standing
- Managed by the City of London Corporation rather than the Royal Parks. Three natural bathing ponds and a 60 metre lido
How to get in
The view from Parliament Hill is the best free view in London and the reason most people come. The ponds are the reason to come back. Parliament Hill Lido, the Kenwood Ladies' Pond and the Highgate Men's Pond are open all year round, including Christmas Day. The Hampstead Mixed Pond runs April to October only.
Swimming outdoors in London in February is a real thing that real people do, and it costs very little. There are pay as you go and season tickets, and under 16s and over 60s swim free before 9.30am on production of proof of age. That last detail is the single most underused thing in this article.
The view parks
Greenwich Park
- Address
- Greenwich, south east London
- Nearest
- Cutty Sark DLR or Greenwich
- Hours
- Pedestrian gates 6am to 8pm. Vehicle gates 7am to 8pm
- Price
- Free, the Royal Observatory is ticketed
- Standing
- A 17th century landscape with a history running back to Roman times
How to get in
Walk up the hill for the skyline and count the landmarks. The meridian line runs through the park and you can stand on it outside without a ticket: only the Observatory building itself is paid. One Tree Hill is the quieter vantage point if the main one is full, and it has been a magnet for artists and writers for a long time.
St James's Park
- Address
- Westminster, SW1
- Nearest
- St James's Park or Westminster
- Hours
- Pedestrian gates 5am to midnight
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- The oldest of the Royal Parks and the most royal of them, at the centre of ceremonial London
How to get in
The park to cross rather than to sit in, because the crossing is the point: Horse Guards at one end, Buckingham Palace at the other, and the lake in between. The pelicans have been here since 1664, when a Russian ambassador gave them to Charles II, and they are still fed in the afternoon.
The rest, briefly and honestly
Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens run together across the middle of west London, with Kensington Gardens alone covering 265 acres. They are the default answer and the least interesting of the nine, which is not the same as bad. Hyde Park is where the events go, and in December it is where Winter Wonderland goes.
The Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill hold the best formal planting in London in Queen Mary’s Gardens, and Primrose Hill gives you the central London skyline from the north. This is the one to take if you want a park that looks designed rather than one that looks like countryside.
The Green Park is a triangle of mature trees and grass with no lake, no flowerbeds and no attractions. That is the entire proposition and on a hot day it is the correct one.
When the gates actually close
This is the practical failure and it is always the same one: the pedestrian gate and the vehicle gate are different times, and people discover it from inside.
| Park | On foot | By car |
|---|---|---|
| Richmond Park | Open 24 hoursExcept the November and February culls | From 7am, closing at dusk |
| Bushy Park | 8am to 10.30pm on weekdays during the cull, to mid October | 8am to 7pm on weekdays during the cull |
| Greenwich Park | 6am to 8pm | 7am to 8pm |
| Hyde Park | 5am to midnight | Not separately published |
| St James’s Park | 5am to midnight | Not separately published |
Richmond is the outlier in both directions. You can walk in at almost any hour of the night, and the vehicle gates shut at dusk rather than at a published time, which means the deadline is earlier in December than it was in June. Those two facts together catch more people than anything else on this page. The Richmond Park guide has the full timetable, the seven car parks and where the deer actually are.
How to pick one
Decide whether you want countryside or a park. Richmond and Bushy are countryside that happens to be inside London and they need boots and a couple of hours. St James’s and Green Park are city parks and take forty minutes. Treating one as the other is the mistake.
Go north for a view and south west for space. Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill are the views. Richmond and Bushy are the space. Greenwich is the only one that gives you a serious view and a serious walk in the same visit.
Check which gate you came in by. Especially at Richmond.
Between September and November, keep 50 metres from the deer and put the dog in the car. This is not a formality and the Royal Parks are explicit about it.
Everything here was taken from the Royal Parks’ and the City of London Corporation’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Gate times change with the season. Confirm before an early start or a late finish.
Wimbledon is the other way to spend a summer day sitting on grass watching something, and the cheapest route in is £15 rather than free.
Santander Cycles is how most people get between these, at £3.50 for a day of unlimited hour long rides, although check which parks allow cycling and where.
London’s lidos covers the outdoor pools inside several of these parks, and which of them you can actually use in February.
No two parks keep the same hours
On foot you get 24 hours at Richmond, 19 at Hyde Park, 14 at Regent’s Park and 13 at Greenwich.
Regent’s Park is the only one where cars get in later than people, and Primrose Hill stays open three hours after it.
Greenwich Park has the free Prime Meridian and the tightest gates of the four.
Holland Park closes at dusk, with some gates shutting 20 minutes early, and bans dogs from the Kyoto Garden.
Victoria Park is London’s oldest public park and the only one of these open every day of the year.
Where to go next
The Kyoto Garden is the Japanese garden inside Holland Park, free and open from 7.30am.
London Zoo sits inside Regent’s Park, and its page covers the prices and the hours that shorten on 24 October.
Free things to do in London covers the rest of what costs nothing, and the free museums cover where to go when it rains.
Two of these parks hold the best views in London, and both need no ticket. Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath has no gate and no closing time. King Henry’s Mound in Richmond Park has a tree framed sightline to the dome of St Paul’s ten miles east, and the Royal Parks state that the view is protected so that no new building may impede it. The views guide ranks them against the towers, which are free but need booking.
Primrose Hill is a fourth, and the only one of them open around the clock on weekdays: the Royal Parks publish The Regent’s Park pedestrian gates as 5am to 7pm and Primrose Hill as 24/7, except from April to November, when it shuts from 10pm to 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Its summit is almost 63 metres and the view from it is one of six protected in London.
Greenwich Park is the third of them. Its 183 acres run up to a viewpoint over the Thames and the City that is free, while the Royal Observatory standing at the top of it is £24. Things to do in Greenwich has the whole day and what each part of it costs.
If the park is the morning, Richmond restaurants is the afternoon: the last lunch seating at Petersham Nurseries is 3pm on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, which catches people out.
London this weekend covers building a Saturday around one of these, and the day trips cover going further than Richmond.
Bonfire Night is the one weekend Battersea Park is ticketed: the display runs on 7 and 8 November 2026, run by Enable with Wandsworth Council, and the nearest stations are Battersea Power Station and Victoria.
Questions we get asked
What is the best park in London?
It depends what you want from the afternoon. Richmond Park for space and wild deer across 2,500 acres. Hampstead Heath for the best free view in London from Parliament Hill and for swimming outdoors all year. Greenwich Park if you want a view and a walk in one visit. St James's Park if you want twenty minutes of ceremonial London rather than a day out.
How many Royal Parks are there in London?
Eight, covering more than 5,000 acres between them: Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Richmond Park, Bushy Park, The Green Park, St James's Park, The Regent's Park with Primrose Hill, and Greenwich Park. The Royal Parks also manage Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens, which are not counted among the eight. Hampstead Heath is not a Royal Park at all: it is run by the City of London Corporation.
Is it safe to see the deer in Richmond Park?
Yes, at a distance. The Royal Parks ask visitors to stay at least 50 metres away, and they say all incidents almost exclusively happen when people get closer than that. The rut runs from the end of September to early November, when stags of around 25 stone, capable of 30mph, are competing. During the rutting and birthing seasons they recommend walking dogs somewhere other than Richmond or Bushy.
What time does Richmond Park close?
On foot it mostly does not close: the pedestrian gates are open 24 hours, except during the six week deer culls from November to early December and February to early March, when they shut between 8pm and 7.30am on every night except Friday and Saturday. The vehicle gates open at 7am in British Summer Time and 7.30am in winter, and close at dusk rather than at a fixed time, so the deadline moves through the year. The full Richmond Park guide has the gate timetable, the seven free car parks and the deer.
Can you swim in Hampstead Heath all year?
Yes, in three of the four. Parliament Hill Lido, the Kenwood Ladies' Pond and the Highgate Men's Pond are open all year round, including Christmas Day. The Hampstead Mixed Pond runs April to October only. There are pay as you go and season tickets, and under 16s and over 60s swim free before 9.30am with proof of age.
Which London park has the best view?
Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath, which is free and looks south across the whole city. Primrose Hill gives you a similar view from a little closer in. Greenwich Park's hill is the third and the only one of them where the walk up is also worth doing for its own sake, with One Tree Hill as the quieter alternative when the main viewpoint is full.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 66 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
