Wimbledon Common
Eleven hundred acres of wild heath, woods and ponds in southwest London, free, complete with a real windmill and the home turf of the Wombles.
The lowdown
Wimbledon Common is one of the largest expanses of wild green in London, eleven hundred acres of heath, woodland, scrub and ponds that feel far more like open countryside than a city park. You can walk for an hour here and barely cross your own path, and all of it is free.
Its landmark is the windmill, a rare hollow-post mill built in 1817, now a small museum, and it was here that the author Elizabeth Beresford dreamed up the Wombles, the litter-collecting creatures of the common. There are horse-riding tracks, a golf course and miles of unpaved trails through the trees.
It is genuinely wild in places, with deer, woodpeckers and dragonflies over the ponds, and it joins onto Putney Heath to make an even bigger green. For a free escape that does not feel remotely like London, it is hard to beat.
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