Hampton Court Circular Walk

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Walk Map

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Walk Options

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13. Main Walk (12 km)

9. Main Walk, finishing at Hampton Wick (13¼ km)
1. Short Circular Walk, from Hampton Wick (9¾ km)

Walk Directions

If you are doing the Short Circular Walk (from Hampton Wick), start at [?] in §B.

1. Hampton Court Station to Hampton Wick (4 km)
1. Go straight ahead out of Hampton Court station, following signs to the palace. Stay on the right-hand side of the main road as you cross Hampton Court Bridge.

   Opened in 1933, this is the fourth bridge over the River Thames at this site. Upstream is Molesey Lock.

2. On the other side of the bridge turn right onto Barge Walk, signposted as the Thames Path. You pass piers and mooring points on the river and Hampton Court Palace on the left, with the Tijou Screen in front of the Privy Garden.

   The elaborate wrought-iron screen was designed by Jean Tijou (a French Huguenot ironworker) for William Ⅲ's Privy Garden in the 1690s. When the baroque style went out of fashion the garden had been allowed to revert to a semi-wild state but was restored to its original appearance in the 1990s.

3. At the end of the palace grounds the path splits into a cycle route and footpath (you can take either). In 400m go through Jubilee Gate in the park wall and then another gate into Hampton Court (or Home) Park.
4. Keep ahead on a grassy path, taking care as you cross a number of golf fairways. You go through one of the long avenues of mature lime trees radiating out from the palace, then pass the tree-lined Oak Pond on your right and Farm Cottages on your left. Continue up to the Long Water and turn right to walk alongside it, away from the palace.

   Two new avenues of lime trees were planted alongside the Long Water in 2004 to recreate its original appearance.

5. At the end of the Long Water turn left. Just after the start of an avenue of trees parallel to a tarmac lane on your right, bear left onto a track which leads to a surfaced lane in front of the Stud Nursery.

   This was built in the early 19^thC when George Ⅳ used Home Park for breeding and training horses.

6. Follow the lane round to the right and back towards the avenue of trees for a short distance, then turn half-left onto a clear grassy path.
7. At the end of the final avenue of lime trees from the palace there are a number of path crossings; turn right at the second one.
8. Follow the grassy path up to the right-hand side of the long Hampton Wick Pond and continue alongside it. At the end keep ahead and leave the park through Kingston Gate, passing the (closed) Old Kings Head pub on your left.
9. Unless you want to investigate other pubs in Hampton Wick, cross the A308 carefully at the traffic lights and go up Church Grove to the pedestrian crossing by St John's church, where there is a gate in the park wall on the left.
   • To detour through Hampton Wick turn right onto the A308, go over the pedestrian crossing and keep left at the roundabout into its High Street. The White Hart Hotel is by the roundabout, The Swan on the right at the junction with Lower Teddington Road and the Foresters Arms at the junction with Park Road and St John's Road. Go to the end of St John's Road to rejoin the main route at [?].
2. Hampton Wick to the Pheasantry Plantation (2¼ • 2¾ km)

1. Starting from Hampton Wick Station (+½ km)

1. Turn left out of the station and go along the High Street for 200m, crossing over at some point (there are pedestrian lights outside the station and also further on, by the Foresters pub).
2. After passing the Foresters Arms turn sharp right into Park Road and then immediately left into St John's Road. At the far end go straight across Church Grove.
2. Opposite St John's church go through Church Grove Gate into Bushy Park, with a LOOP waymarker.

   The London Outer Orbital Path runs for 240 km around the edge of outer London. The route through Bushy Park to the Water Gardens more or less follows this well-waymarked path.

3. At the end of the tree-lined avenue (Church Grove Passage) go through another gate into the parkland. Keep ahead briefly on a surfaced path, then bear right onto a broad grassy track.
4. At the corner of a cricket pitch turn half-right onto the right-hand of two grassy paths and follow it towards the right-hand end of a wood 400m away.
5. At the edge of the wood bear left to come to a crossing point over a canal joining Leg-of-Mutton Pond (on your right) and the next pond, 200m further on. Go over the canal and turn left to walk alongside it.
6. At the end of the canal veer right and left to continue alongside Heron Pond, initially on a surfaced path and then on a potentially muddy path by the water's edge.
7. Follow the path round to the right to continue alongside the Model Boating Pond. At the end of this second pond keep ahead on a grassy path alongside a narrow water channel.
8. At the end of the channel turn half-left and make your way across the grass towards a cast-iron water pump and Chestnut Avenue, the main road through the park (but now closed to through traffic).

   The mile-long avenue was conceived by Sir Christopher Wren as a grand formal approach to Hampton Court Palace. It is flanked on both sides by a row of horse chestnuts and several rows of lime trees.

9. Go straight across the avenue and head for a pedestrian gate in the boundary fence around the Woodland Gardens, about 100m to the left of a vehicle entrance from the main road.

   This area was originally fenced off in 1823 to protect a new plantation of oak trees from the deer. The gardens were developed by the Park Superintendent in 1947, with informal clumps of rhododendrons and azaleas around a channel of the Longford River. They consist of two enclosures separated by a narrow strip of parkland, Ash Walk.

10. Go through the gate into the first enclosure, the Pheasantry Plantation. If you want to visit the Pheasantry café, bear right to cross the stream at Crocodile Bridge and follow the path up to the building.
    • If you are not visiting the café you could turn left instead of crossing the bridge, going directly onto the main path through the plantation.
3. The Plantation to the Water Gardens and back (4 km)
1. Make your way to the main path through the Pheasantry Plantation, heading W. From the café the shortest route is to head SW towards some small ponds, where you can cross a stream at Duck Bridge and then turn right at a T-junction onto the main path.
2. Where the path splits into two you can take either route (or an earth path just off to the right, alongside Keeper's River). All routes lead to a wooden gate at the western end of the plantation.
3. Go out through this gate, straight across Ash Walk and through another gate into the second enclosure, the Waterhouse Plantation.
4. For the simplest route keep right at the first two path junctions to head roughly NW on the main path for 300m, then turn right at a T-junction to head N for 350m on a long straight path.
   1. For a more interesting route (using the map) you could detour off to the left and make your way around Fisher's Pond to the larger Waterhouse Pond (with a small brick building on its far side, the Water House).

      In a glade to the north of Waterhouse Pond, the Canadian Totem Pole was erected in 1992 to commemorate the country's links with Bushy Park. Upper Lodge was used as a convalescent hospital for Canadian troops in WW Ⅰ.

   2. Paths zig-zagging W and N alongside the Longford River allow for further detours off the main path. 250m north of Waterhouse Pond there is a striking avenue of hornbeams connecting the two routes.

      The trees are a cultivar (Fastigiata) with upward-pointing branches creating a ‘cathedral’ effect.

5. At its northern end leave the plantation through a wooden gate and turn right. Go out through another gate into the parkland and turn left onto a broad grassy path heading N, with a fence on your left.
6. In 550m, where the main path crosses a small stream and turns half-right, there is a narrow path off to the left leading to the Water Gardens.
   • To bypass these gardens (eg. on a day when they are closed) stay on the main path as it goes round to the right, then turn right again onto a surfaced path leading away from the gardens. In 100m turn right onto a surfaced lane and (for the simplest route) follow it for 800m to a seasonal car park. If you do this, resume the directions at [?].
7. For the main route, fork left to come to another surfaced path, which leads to a gate. Go through this into the Water Gardens.

   The Upper Lodge Water Gardens were created in 1710 by the Earl of Halifax, Ranger of Bushy Park, but gradually fell into disrepair and were virtually forgotten by the 20^thC. After a long campaign and many years of detailed research they were eventually restored to their 18^thC baroque style, reopening in 2009.

8. Keep to the left of the Lower Pool and go past the central Cascade to the far side of the Upper Pool, ignoring a bridge over the river leading to the Brewhouse (not open to the public).
9. Leave through a gate in the wooden fence and follow the path round to the right. In 125m turn right at a T-junction onto a surfaced lane, soon passing Upper Lodge on the right.

   The present house dates from the 1840s; earlier buildings on the site were used as the Ranger's official residence. It was used as a wartime hospital in WW Ⅰ and became part of Camp Griffiss in WW Ⅱ, an important base for the US forces. The house is now part of the Crown Estate and privately occupied.

10. After it curves right to head S, the simplest route is to follow the lane (which becomes Cobbler's Walk) through the park, gradually curving left and coming to a seasonal car park on the right after 1 km.
    1. Alternatively (again using the map) you could bear left off the lane onto a faint grassy path, which in 150m goes past the right-hand end of the tree-lined Canal Plantation.

       The white buildings in the distance are part of the National Physical Laboratory, the national measurement standards laboratory for the UK. They were constructed between 1998 and 2007.

    2. You can continue on more grassy paths roughly parallel to the lane, off to the right. You would pass to the right of a house (Barton's Cottage) after 300m and later bear right in front of a wood to rejoin Cobbler's Walk by the car park.
11. Take the broad grassy path heading SSE from the far end of the car park, heading for a pedestrian gate in the wooden fence 300m away (well to the right of a more prominent vehicle entrance).

    The large house which comes into view behind you is Bushy House (originally Lower Lodge). This former hunting lodge became the original site of the NPL in 1900 and is still part of the organisation.

12. Go through this gate to re-enter the Pheasantry Plantation. Inside the gardens the left-hand path leads past Mediterranean Mound to the Pheasantry café.
    • If you are not visiting the café you could take the other path up to the ponds and across Duck Bridge, then turn left at the T-junction to reach the gate by Crocodile Bridge.

If you are doing the alternative ending (to Hampton Wick), go to §E.

4. The Plantation to Hampton Court Station (1¾ km)

⬅ South (map rotated 90°)

1. From the café take the path heading SE to Crocodile Bridge and leave the enclosure through the gate by which you entered on the outward leg. Keep ahead on a broad grassy path heading S, to the right of a surfaced path.
2. In 350m the path goes up a small bank where the Longford River flows into a culvert. Bear left to follow the curve of Chestnut Avenue around the Diana Fountain.

   The Royal Parks controversially maintain that the bronze statue (gilded in its 2009 restoration) actually represents the nymph Arethusa rather than the Roman goddess of hunting. It was commissioned by Charles Ⅰ from Le Sueur in 1637 and originally stood at Somerset House. It was later moved to the Privy Garden at Hampton Court before being installed as the centrepiece of Wren's grand Chestnut Avenue in 1713.

3. Head S down the right-hand side of Chestnut Avenue and leave Bushy Park through Hampton Court Gate, with the imposing Lion Gates of Hampton Court Palace opposite.

   The Portland stone piers and wrought-iron gates were designed by Wren in the reign of Queen Anne and her successor, George Ⅰ.

4. Unless access through the palace grounds has been restored and the Lion Gates are open, turn right onto the A308 (Hampton Court Road). Follow it round a sharp left-hand bend, where you could move onto Hampton Court Green if you want to get slightly away from the traffic.
5. Before you reach the roundabout ahead you will need to cross the busy main road via one of the pedestrian crossings. On the palace side carry on past the main Trophy Gate and go back across Hampton Court Bridge to the station.
   • There are some large inns directly opposite the palace entrance, and more pubs and coffee shops across the bridge in East Molesey. There is also a refreshment kiosk inside the station.
5. The Plantation to Hampton Wick Station (3 km)
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3. Cross Chestnut Avenue carefully near the traffic circle and head E on an access road, passing a children's playground and later toilets on the right. For the shortest route, follow this track all the way along the southern edge of the park.
   • About 200m after passing the toilets you could bear left onto a grassy path which curves right to run parallel to the main track. If you take this small detour, bear right at an oblique path junction 75m before reaching a cricket ground to rejoin the track.
4. At the end of the parkland go through a gate and retrace your morning route along Church Grove Passage. Leave Bushy Park through Church Grove Gate, cross the road and continue on St John's Road opposite.
5. St John's Road leads into Park Road near its junction with Hampton Wick's High Street, with the Foresters Arms on the corner.
6. The station is 200m off to the left on the other side of the High Street, so use the pedestrian lights near the pub or outside the station to cross the main road.

» Last updated: October 9, 2023

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