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Bushy Park is the second-largest of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the south-west of London, in the borough of Richmond upon Thames.
1100 acres (450 hectares) in area, Bushy Park lies immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and Hampton Court Gardens , a few minutes walk west of Kingston-upon-Thames. It includes fishing and model boating ponds, horse rides, formal plantations of plants and trees, wild areas of bracken inhabited by many deer, and wildlife conservation areas. It is also home to several lodges and cottages, the National Physical Laboratory and the Royal Paddocks .
The area now known as Bushy Park has been settled for the past 4000 years - a Bronze Age barrow has been excavated here, and there is ample evidence of an extensive Medieval field system.
When Henry VIII took over Hampton Court Palace from Thomas Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, the King also took over the three parks that make up modern-day Bushy Park; Hare Warren, Middle Park and Bushy Park. A keen hunter, he established them as deer hunting grounds. His successors, perhaps less bloodthirsty, added a number of picturesque features, including the Longford River , a 19 kilometre canal built on the orders of Charles I of England to provide water to Hampton Court, as well as the Park's various ponds. This period also saw the construction of the Park's main thoroughfare, Chestnut Avenue, which runs between Hampton Court Road in Hampton and Sandy Lane in Teddington. This Avenue and the Diana Fountain it leads to were designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
The Park has long been popular with locals, but also attracts those from further afield. From the mid nineteenth Century until World War II Londoners celebrated Chestnut Sunday here, coming to see the blooming of the trees along Chesnut Avenue (this tradition resumed in 1993). During the late 1800s, the modern game of field hockey was largely invented at Bushy.
During World War I, Bushy Park was home to the King's Canadian Hospital, and between the wars hosted a camp for undernourished children. During World War II, General Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower ( October 14, 1890 March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States ( 1953 1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General planned the D-Day landings from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force ( SHAEFSHAEF was the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force the command headquarters of the commander of Allied forces in North West Europe in 1944 and 1945. That post was held by General Dwight Eisenhower throughout its existence. SHAEF was created in) in the Park.