Old Deer Park

Old Deer Park
One of the two obelisks facing the River Thames in Old Deer Park
Type	public
Location	Richmond, London
Coordinates	51°27′51.79″N 0°18′21.67″W / 51.4643861°N 0.3060194°W / 51.4643861; -0.3060194
Area	147 hectares (360 acres)

Old Deer Park is an area of open space within Richmond, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It is 147 hectares (360 acres) in extent of which 90.37 hectares (223.3 acres) is classed as "private".

The park is bounded generally by the River Thames to the west, Kew Gardens to the north, and urban areas of Richmond town to the east and south. Owned by the Crown Estate, the park forms part of a larger historic landscape stretching from Richmond to Kew and across the river to Isleworth. The low-lying parts of the park alongside the river constitute flood storage areas, which from time to time provide flood relief for areas around Richmond Lock along this stretch of the Thames.

Old Deer Park's heritage as an historic royal landscape in a favoured riverside location has become compromised over recent decades by instances of inappropriate recreational and parking development, general neglect, and insufficient control of tree planting. A long-term strategy is now being implemented in order to arrest and reverse this decline.

In the mid-16th century, Richmond Palace was a favourite residence of Queen Elizabeth I and in 1574 she granted "Our park of Isleworth otherwise called the Newe Parke of Richmonde" to Edward Bacon. This statement appears somewhat confusing as Isleworth Parish and Manor lie on the left "Middlesex" bank of the Thames, here on the north and west, opposite the "Surrey" bank within which Richmond is situated.

After the death of Elizabeth, at Richmond, in 1603 a hunting park was established by King James I by means of adding monastic land to the existing park and creating an enlarged area of 370 acres (1.5 km²). This then became known as The New Park of Richmond. The present name "Old Deer Park" was adopted after 1637, following the establishment by King Charles I of the much larger Richmond Park on the other side of the town.