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The Royal Parks Half Marathon
- Sapphire Running Team
- Jul 20, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 5, 2025
Everything you need to know about the Royal Parks Half Marathon
This half marathon in the heart of London takes in some of the capital's world-famous landmarks, on closed roads and within four of London's eight Royal Parks - Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James's Park and Kensington Gardens. It was set up by The Royal Parks charity as an annual fundraising initiative to help conserve and enhance London’s eight Royal Parks and at the same time it encourages runners to raise what they can for their favourite charities.
The Destination
London's Royal Parks are the lungs of the city and wherever you are in the City you're never likely to be far from one. If you're visiting London there is a very good chance you will visit one or more, either for an event or just to experience their magic. As soon as you step inside it feels like the urban chaos has been left behind and you're deep in the country. Here we look at three of the most popular.
Hyde Park
Hyde Park covers 350 acres of green space and its highlights include the Diana Memorial Fountain, built to honour the late Princess of Wales and Speakers’ Corner, an historic site of public protest, speeches and debates once used by Karl Marx, George Orwell and Vladimir Lenin. There's the Hyde Park Tennis and Sports Centre, which includes football pitches, a putting green and a space for lawn bowls, as well as two riding stables and the Serpentine Lido, famous for its open water swimming at all times of the year.
The Park hosts many festivals throughout the year and especially in the summer months, including international music festivals and there are regular large scale events like Winter Wonderland.
The Green Park
This is the Park where you really do go to get away from it all. It doesn’t have any lakes nor does it stand out for its impressive memorials or statues, but boasts hundreds of mature trees and grassland. The smallest of the Royal parks, it's only 40 acres and located just a few metres away from Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly.
It used to be a marshland where lepers from the nearby St James's Hospital were buried until in 1668, under Charles II, the land became a park known as upper St James’s Park. It's had a chequered past, becoming a refuge for thieves and bandits and known as a duelling ground. There was an attempt on the life of Queen Victoria here in 1840.
Regent's Park
The 410 acre Regent's Park is located in inner north-west London. It's mainly open parkland with a wide range of facilities and amenities, including gardens; a lake and a boating area, sports pitches and children's playgrounds. On the northern side is London Zoo and the headquarters of the Zoological Society of London. There are several public gardens with unique flowers and plants, including Queen Mary's Gardens in the Inner Circle, home of the Open Air Theatre. The official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, stands in private grounds in the western section of the park.
History
The Royal Parks Half Marathon was set up by The Royal Parks charity as an annual fundraising initiative to help conserve and enhance London’s Royal Parks for everyone The money raised by the event helps to keep the magic of eight vital green spaces alive, teach children and adults about the natural world, care for wildlife and conserve historic monuments.
The Parks are Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St. James’s Park, The Green Park, The Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park, Bushy Park, Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens. The Parks themselves are owned by the Crown with their responsibility resting with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The Royal Parks charity manages the Parks on behalf of the Government.
Race Organiser
The event is owned by the Royal Parks charity and operated on its behalf by London Marathon Events Ltd, until at least 2027.
When?
The race is held annually in October
Distances
Half Marathon
Is there an Expo?
Race bibs are posted prior to the event.
After the race there is a Food & Fitness Festival, with a focus on fun and sustainability.
How many runners?
16,000
Course
It all starts (and finishes) in the Festival Area, established for the day on the south side of Hyde Park. There's a waved start format, beginning at 9am. From here runners head east to the magnificent Wellington Arch and then through The Green Park to Buckingham Palace, one of the most famous buildings in the world. The Palace has been the official London residence of the UK’s sovereigns since 1837 and today is the administrative headquarters of the Monarch. There are 775 rooms. These include 19 State rooms, which are open to the public, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms!
It's then along the southern edge of St James's Park to the Houses of Parliament and then Trafalgar Square at mile 4.
It's then west along St James's Park and The Green Park and past the Arch again. It was built as an original entrance to Buckingham Palace, later becoming a victory arch proclaiming Wellington's defeat of Napoleon. Crowned by the largest bronze sculpture in Europe, it depicts the Angel of Peace descending on the four-horse chariot of war.
You're now only half a mile or so from the start. The last 8 miles of the course are exclusively within Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and this gives you the scale of the Parks. They are massive and there are only a couple of stretches where you can see runners coming in the opposite direction, around 5.5 miles and 10 miles. Runners have a great view of historic Kensington Palace at 11 miles. It's a working Royal residence and a favorite residence of successive sovereigns until 1760. It was also the birthplace and childhood home of Queen Victoria. It's now home to the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate.
Just outside the Park at just after 12 miles is the Royal Albert Hall and then it's into the festival area and the superb run to the finish!
What's unique?
There is no other event in London where the run goes through four Royal Parks. There are more major running events in the city now than ever before, but none with this focus.
Do charities benefit?
There is a significant charity programme and one of the event's objectives is to support charitable running. Charities are able to purchase entries that are then made available to runners who agree to fundraise for them. £60 million has been to date for over 1,200 UK charities.
Our verdict
Although the vast majority of the half is not around London's streets it does give you a unique take on the city. It's very well organised as you'd expect and the atmosphere is quality. Definitely worth doing.
How to register
Online via the website. There is a ballot that is normally oversubscribed. If rejected from the ballot it is easy to get an entry from a partner charity in return for a pre-agreed amount of fundraising. Specialist running tour operators do have entries available for international runners..
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