Bushy Park (including Upper Lodge Gardens) *

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.

Bushy Park comprises areas of deer park, woodland, farmland, water and gardens developed from the late C15th onwards, and the park's history is closely connected to the development of Hampton Court Park and Gardens (q.v.), from which the park is now separated by Hampton Court Road. Most boundaries of the park are enclosed by walls. The origins of the deer park here date from 1491 when Giles D'Aubrey enclosed 162 hectares of Middle Park's farmland. By 1504 Cardinal Wolsey, then at Hampton Court, had enclosed three areas of farmland of Bushy Park, Middle Park and Hare Warren and also the Home Park of Hampton Court Palace (q.v.). Some evidence remains today of its former agricultural use with traces of medieval track and ditch and field hedges, as well as rabbit warrens. When Henry VIII acquired Hampton Court in 1529 he formed his royal deer park from these enclosed lands, also enclosing Old Park in 1537. Bushy Park was further extended by James I in 1629 when he added 68 hectares of Court Field, which he enclosed with a wall. In 1708 Charles Montagu (1661-1715), Earl of Halifax, a Treasury Lord and later first Chancellor of the Exchequer, purchased the keepership of the three parks from Charles II's former mistress the Duchess of Cleveland. As a result the distinction between Bushy Park, Middle Park and Hare Warren was lost and all became known as Bushy Park.

In 1638-9 Charles I had a tributary of the River Colne diverted through Bushy Park, which was named the Longford River. The new waterway, designed by Nicholas Lane and executed by Edward Manning, is 12 miles long and enters Bushy Park at Pantile Bridge near Upper Lodge in the north west corner of the park. There were waterworks at various points along the Longford River, including a cascade by Waterhouse Pond dating from c.1710. At that time, the Water Gardens extended nearly 1 km across the width of the north-western section of the park. Water from the river was used for the elaborate water gardens created in the grounds of Upper Lodge by the second Earl Halifax in the C18th. During the Commonwealth water had been diverted to feed the new Heron and Leg of Mutton Ponds. Lower Lodge, now called Bushy House (q.v.) and since 1900 the home of the National Physical Laboratory, had been built by the Keeper of Middle Park in 1663-5. It became the residence of the Ranger of Bushy Park, occupied by members of the aristocracy and the royal family until 1896.

The main avenues of Bushy Park were first planted in 1689-99 under the direction of Royal Gardener George London (1640-1714), with Henry Wise (1653-1738) contracted in 1699. The park is essentially divided by Chestnut Avenue with its chestnuts and outer rows of lime, which extends north from the Lion Gates of Hampton Court Palace as far as Teddington Lodge. It is interrupted 400m north by the misnamed 'Diana Fountain'; a circular basin was made in c.1699 with central pedestal and in 1713 a statue representing Arethusa with attendant figures was erected here, which had previously been in the Privy Garden at Hampton Court. Lime avenues extend west from the Diana Fountain for 1.25 km, and there are numerous other avenues, mainly lime. The Woodland Garden of c.40 ha. and the Waterhouse Plantation were developed c.1949 by J M Fisher, who was responsible for the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park (q.v.). In the west area of the Woodland Garden is a platform at the edge of the lake with shelter and Totem Bench designed by Kate Walker, 1993. Replanting of lime avenues began in 1986, but many trees were damaged in the October 1987 storms. There are still deer in the park.

Friends of Bushy and Home Parks formed in c.1990; in 1995 they commissioned a report by Kathy White on Upper Lodge and its 15 acres (c.6ha) of gardens designed for the Earl of Halifax, which received wide acclaim in the C18th. The elaborate water gardens, formed from the Longford River, had pools and a cascade enhanced by rustic stone grottoes and grassy paths, offset with clipped yew, holly and box. The present house was built on the site of the previous Ranger's Lodge, which was ruinous by 1710 when the Earl of Halifax became Ranger of Bushy Park; it was a condition of his tenancy that he rebuild the house. The original Georgian design of his house has been overlaid by additions and extensions particularly in the C19th, when following the establishment of the Office of Works, Upper Lodge became one of the Grace and Favour residences at the disposal of the sovereign. The last Grace and Favour tenant, the widow of General Lord Alfred Paget, left in 1913 and George V allowed it to be used by the Canadian Red Cross during WWI and it became known as the King's Canadian Hospital; a prefabricated theatre built to entertain the convalescing Canadian soldiers still stands. A totem in the Woodland Garden made by an indigenous Canadian sculptor of the Nisga’a tribe, Norman Tait, recalls the connection to Canada.

In 1919 Upper Lodge was granted to the London County Council as a holiday home for underprivileged boys from the East End of London, known as the 'King's Canadian School', which accommodated 290 boys at a time. The boys used the pools for swimming after their open-air lessons.

At the start of WWII the site was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and in June 1942 the US 8th Army Airforce set up camp in Bushy Park with Upper Lodge designated as a barracks for enlisted men called Camp Griffiss. In 1944 General Eisenhower moved the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) to Bushy, and it was from here that D-Day was initially planned.  A memorial plaque in the park commemorates these events. After the war, in 1945 Upper Lodge transferred to the Admiralty for an extension of the Admiralty Research Station based at the National Physical Laboratory (Bushy House q.v.). During the C20th various 'temporary' buildings were erected. In 1953 the Admiralty diverted the main river channel with sluices to control flows into the pools, which includes a 7-step cascade visible from the bridge to the Brewhouse.The requisition was converted to a formal lease in 1994, and the next decades saw a determined struggle between the Ministry of Works, responsible for management of Royal Parks, to prevent the Admiralty's building on the grounds. There are stable buildings of C18th and C19th in the north-west, and the Old Brewhouse built in the late C17th 200m south-west of Upper Lodge.

Bushy Park Water Gardens Trust received an HLF grant of £25,000 in 1997 to develop a restoration plan for the Upper Lodge Water Gardens and other 'lost' features; as part of the process considerable research and archaeological surveys were undertaken, in partnership with The Crown Estate and The Royal Parks. Aerial photos show that Bushy's formal landscape was on a grand scale, centering on an oval pool sited directly in front of Upper Lodge, and this was restored in 2000. Connected by an ornamental cascade, the Upper and Lower Pools form the core of the restored gardens to the west of the Lodge. The Brewhouse was built in 1710 for the Earl of Halifax when he was keeper of the parks and it is believed it was designed to be sufficiently grand in scale for visibility from Upper Lodge, as an element in the the landscape rather than just a building for beer production. On 29 September 2006 The Royal Parks gained full responsibility for the Water Gardens and in 2008 secured HLF funding for their restoration, and they opened in October 2009. The restoration of the cascades and alcoves was informed by C18th paintings, such as that by Marco Ricci, 'A View of the Cascade, Bushy Park Gardens', now on display at Hampton Court Palace, which may have been painted to celebrate the visit of Prince George (later George II) and his future Queen Caroline of Ansbach.

Among the buildings erected for research purposes by the Admiralty was a Rotunda housing the rotating beam channel for testing torpedoes; the gear wheel was salvaged and is on display in Groom's Paddock to the east of Upper Lodge, with explanatory information boards.