Outdoors & Nature

Ideal for a sunny day. And for a cold rainy day: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing".

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

Isabella Plantation

Forty acres of woodland garden inside Richmond Park, at its best when the azaleas flower in late April and early May, free.

GardensFree

Lord Sidmouth, once Prime Minister and then deputy ranger of Richmond Park, fenced off seventeen hectares of boggy ground in 1831 and planted it with oak, beech and sweet chestnut to keep the deer out and grow timber; the name is older, from a field called Isabell Slade, dirty ground between the woods. After the Second World War the park's superintendent George Thomson turned the plantation into a woodland garden, opened to the public in 1953: streams and three ponds, a bog garden, a heather garden, and the evergreen Kurume azaleas brought from Japan in the 1920s that the garden now holds as a national collection, flowering in a blaze of pinks and reds in the last week of April and the first of May. Camellias and magnolias come before them and rhododendrons after. It is run without chemicals, which is why the birds and dragonflies are so thick, and it is free.

Where
Richmond Park, TW10 5HS
Nearest station
Norbiton · 30 min walk

Open daily in daylight hours

NearbyOutdoors & Nature

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?