Home Park covers an area of about 750 acres (303.5 ha). It is bordered by the formal gardens of Hampton Court Palace, a walled road between Hampton Court and Kingston Bridge, and Barge Walk running alongside a bend of the River Thames.
Home Park is a deer park with a herd of around 300 Fallow deer, descended from the original herd of Henry VIII. These graze on the grasslands and ensure biodiversity by avoiding damage to the ancient anthills.
The present outstanding features of the Park are its great avenues of lime trees radiating out from the Palace for around three quarters of a mile towards the east. In the centre of these runs the Long Water, which at its eastern end now contains the Jubilee Fountain. There is also a Cross Avenue perpendicular to, and at the eastern end of, the Long Water. The avenues and Long Water form a coherent geometry with the formal Palace gardens.
Apart from the formal Long Water, there are various other areas of water, most notable the Hampton Wick Pond, Oak and Rick ponds, the latter used for model boats.
The three main buildings of historic interest in the Park are Stud House and The Pavilion, which are private residences, and the Ice House near Hampton Wick gate, which is also not open to the public.
Large areas of land on the eastern side of the Park, some prone to flooding, and mainly used for grazing and paddocks, are also inaccessible to the public.
A golf course occupies a large area in the south of the Park but is not physically enclosed and merges with the Park.
In medieval times, the area was open grazing land. It seems certain that it was Cardinal Wolsey, in the early 16th century, who first enclosed with timber palings land that we now know as Home Park.