STAG PARTY
Words by Jessica Peace
This park is EPIC.
Richmond Park is the vastest of all the Royal Parks, get ready to feel FREE (Woo!). It’s got ponds, woodlands, stretching glades and at its highest bump you can cop an eyeful of St Paul’s dome 12 miles away. The Royals have had the patch since the 13th century but it was Charlie I who fled to Richmond Palace in 1625 to swerve the plague and brought his entourage with him. Liking the scenery he invited a bunch of deer whose descendants are still hangin’ out now.
RUT N’ ROLL
So thanks to Charlie we get to see deer in Richmond Park but don’t get too close, this is their manor remember. Right now the deer are getting their ‘rut’ on and it is as sexy as it sounds. Rutting is where the stags and bucks clash to seduce their ladies, these boys are pumped full of testosterone and are carrying about 25 stone so don’t get in their way...
PEMBROKE LODGE
If you fancy a tea, a bap and catching the last of the summer blooms in a rose garden get yourself up to Pembroke Lodge.
This was home to Prime Minister Lord John Russell but you might be more familiar with his peace and leisure lovin’ philosopher son Bertrand - nice to see where the big thinker spent his childhood.
THE ISABELLA PLANTATION
Rumour has it that this sweet spot was not named after some old flame but comes from the oldey word, ‘isabel’: meaning ‘dingy’ like this boggy part of the park back in the day. Well, it’s not so ‘isabel’ now; it’s gotten quite a bit of dosh and been conserved, stuffed with acid loving and native plants and is looked after with strictly organic principles. Like it.
HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK
Reader? Poet, rapper, wordsmith? Blockhead lover? If you traipse up to Poet’s Corner you can have a perch on the Ian Dury bench, his memorial is inscribed, ‘Reasons to Be Cheerful’.
HOW MUCH?
FREE AS YOU LIKE.
TUBE/ TRAIN?
RICHMOND (plan - this took some of us a LONG time to get here via train and then you might wanna jump on a bus to the park)
BUS?
(loads) 190, 391, 419, R68, 33, 337, 485, 85/N85, 265, K3, 72, 493, 65, 371.
BIKE?
Cycle to it and cycle through it on the designated roads; there is one ‘off-road’ trail you’re allowed to ride called the ‘Tamsin Trail’ - but that’s it.
SHANKS’S PONY?
On the Thames path.
LET ME IN?
CHECK - the ‘Deer Cull’ (we know) happens in November and February, you don’t want to stumble into that, otherwise it’s open 24/7.
#RichmondPark