The Royal Parks

The Royal Parks make up land that was originally used for the recreation, mostly hunting, by the royal family. They are part of the hereditary possessions of The Crown, now managed by The Royal Parks, a charity which manages eight royal parks and certain other areas of parkland in London. The Royal Parks charity was created as a company limited by guarantee in March 2017 and officially launched in July 2017. Its chief executive is Andrew Scattergood.

The charity took over the main responsibilities of management from the Royal Parks Agency – a former executive agency of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – and from the Royal Parks Foundation, which was a separate charity.

With increasing urbanisation of London, some royal hunting or tenant lands were preserved as freely accessible open space and became public parks with the introduction of the Crown Lands Act 1851. There are today eight parks formally described by this name and they cover almost 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of land in Greater London.

The parks were used as hunting grounds for the royal family, often associated with royal residences or land formerly belonging to monasteries. In the 1500s, Henry VIII enclosed lands to the north of the Palace of Whitehall for what is now St James's Park and The Green Park. He also took the land that became Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens from Westminster Abbey. Over the years, there has been a gradual transition towards public accessibility for these areas. Hyde Park was opened to the public in 1673 by King Charles II.

The present parks are:

Five of these parks – The Regent’s Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, The Green Park, and St James's Park – are situated in central London.

The parks are owned by the Crown, with responsibility for them resting with the Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Royal Parks charity manages the parks on behalf of the government.

The Royal Parks charity follows a set vision, purpose and its values.