Pyrgo Park

Pyrgo Park sits on the gentle ridge above Havering-atte-Bower in the London Borough of Havering. The land once held Pirgo Palace, a royal home built before 1540 and gone by 1814, and later Pyrgo House finished in 1852 but gone within a century. It is one of three large parklands in the village, alongside Bedfords Park and Havering Country Park.

The site is worth the journey for its royal past and the figures who shaped it. King Henry VIII took Pirgo as his own in 1537, repaired the mansion, and brought his daughters Mary and Elizabeth there in 1542 to restore them to the line of succession. After Henry, the palace passed to Lord John Grey, then to his grandson the Earl of Stamford, and finally to Sir Thomas Cheek in 1621. The estate’s chapel once held Grey and Cheek family tombs, including a knight’s monument with sixteen coats of arms.

Visitors today find wide views westwards across the gentle ridge and the remains of the palace gardens still visible after the First World War. The farm buildings that survive on the site stand northwest of where the great house once stood, partly excavated in 1972. The parkland itself stretches over the old estate, offering quiet walks among the trees and open land that once formed part of Henry VIII’s private park of 200 acres of open ground and 100 acres of woods.