Старый Олений Парк в Ричмонде: История и Современность

Open space in Richmond, London

Old Deer Park is an area of open space within Richmond, owned by the Crown Estate, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It covers of which are leased as sports grounds for sports, particularly rugby and golf. Despite the name, there are now no deer in the park.

The park is bounded generally by the River Thames to the west, Kew Gardens to the north and, across a trunk road, urban areas of Richmond town to the east and south. Owned by the Crown Estate, the park forms part of a larger retained historic and biodiverse landscape incorporating part of Richmond, Kew and Isleworth. The lowest, western parts of the park constitute flood storage areas, which provide emergency flood relief around Richmond semi tidally submerged Lock. Old Deer Park's heritage as a 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 to arrest and reverse this decline. Within the club's boundaries are two 18 hole courses, plus a separate area within which lies the Grade I listed King's Observatory, established by King George III in 1769. To the south west of the Observatory, under the fairway of the 14th hole of the outer golf course, lie the foundations of the former Carthusian Sheen Priory, founded by Henry V in 1414. Construction of the railway line westwards from Richmond Station in 1847/8 restricted the access from Richmond Green to Old Deer Park, except for one narrow bridge. Eighty five years later a new arterial road (the "Great Chertsey Road"), complete with a high ramped approach to a new bridge over the Thames (Twickenham Bridge – built in 1933), was also constructed across the southern end of the park, close to and roughly parallel with the railway. This heightened the sense of separation between town and park – alleviating this problem is also part of the new strategy. The park was used to accommodate 5,000 of the 8,000 Scouts attending the 1st World Scout Jamboree in 1920. The public open spaces are occasionally used for circuses, funfairs and other events.

Old Deer Park has been used a venue for cricket since at least 1867, when Richmond played a United South of England Eleven. During its history, the ground has played host to a number of Middlesex Second XI and Surrey Second XI matches. Despite historically being within Surrey, the ground has played host to List A matches involving Middlesex, the first of which saw them Nottinghamshire in the 2000 Norwich Union National League. In 2001 the Middlesex Cricket Board played their only List A match at the ground in the 2001 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy against Berkshire. From 2000 to 2004, the ground held 5 List A matches, the last of which saw Middlesex play Scotland in the 2004 totesport League. Starting in the 2003 Twenty20 Cup against Kent, Middlesex have used the ground for six Twenty20 matches to date. In local domestic cricket, the ground is the home venue of Richmond Cricket Club.