Richmond Park

Richmond Park is 2,500 acres of ancient woodland, grassland, and medieval deer park sitting improbably inside zone 4 of the London Underground map. It's the largest of the Royal Parks — bigger than the entire City of London — and it contains 600 free-roaming red and fallow deer that have been here since Charles I enclosed the park in 1637 as a royal hunting ground.

The deer are the main attraction, and in autumn during the rutting season they are genuinely spectacular — stags bellowing at dawn, antlers clashing, the whole atavistic drama playing out while joggers in Lycra try to maintain a safe distance. The park authorities are very clear that these are wild animals and will charge you if you get too close, a warning that approximately 40% of Instagram users choose to ignore every year.

The park's other secret is the view from King Henry's Mound — a Bronze Age burial mound near the Richmond Gate entrance that has a protected sightline all the way to St Paul's Cathedral, 19 kilometres away. The view is maintained by law — no building is allowed to obstruct it — and on a clear day you can see the dome of St Paul's framed perfectly through a gap in the trees. There are also Isabella Plantation, a woodland garden with ponds and azaleas that's outrageously beautiful in May, and Pembroke Lodge, a Georgian mansion serving cream teas with a view that makes you forget you're in London.