Jump to content

Historic Royal Palaces

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the British charity. For historic royal palaces, see list of royal palaces.

Historic Royal Palaces
AbbreviationHCP
Formation1989
HeadquartersHampton Court Palace
Location
  • United Kingdom
Region served
England and Northern Ireland
Membership
137,777(2023)
Key people
Nicholas Coleridge (Chairman)
Carole Souter (Trustee)
John Barnes (CEO)
Lucy Worsley (Chief curator)
Tracy Borman (Chief curator)
Main organ
Board of trustees
Revenue
£102.5 million (2022–23)
Volunteers
300
Websitewww.hrp.org.uk

Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity that manages the United Kingdom's unoccupied royal palaces:

Historic Royal Palaces is also responsible for Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland, the official residence in Northern Ireland of the King.

Historic Royal Palaces has managed the London palaces since 1989, and Hillsborough Castle since 2014. Occupied royal palaces, such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, are maintained by the Royal Household Property Section, and some are open to the public.

Constitution

[edit]

Historic Royal Palaces is established as a Royal Charter Body with charitable status.[1]

The objectives of Historic Royal Palace, as set out in its Royal Charter are, for the benefit of the nation:

  • to manage, conserve, renovate, repair, maintain and improve the Palaces to a high standard consistent with their status as buildings of Royal association and historic and/or architectural importance.
  • to help everyone to learn about the Palaces, the skills required for their conservation and the wider story of how monarchs and people together have shaped society by providing public access, by exhibition, by events and education programmes, by the preparation of records, by research and by publication and by such other means as are appropriate.[2]

Historic Royal Palaces is a Public Corporation but receives no funding from either the Government or the Crown, with all of its costs met by self-generated income.[2]

The London palaces themselves are owned by the King in right of the Crown, and Historic Royal Palaces is contracted by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to manage the five London palaces on his behalf. Hillborough Castle is owned by the Government and its management is contracted to Historic Royal Palaces by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.[2]

Historic Royal Palaces' trading arm, Historic Royal Palaces Enterprises Limited, is company wholly-owned by Historic Royal Palaces responsible for running the charity's commercial activities.[2]

Governance

[edit]

The Board of Historic Royal Palaces consists of a Chair and eleven Trustees, all non-executive and unpaid. The Chair is appointed by the King on the advice of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Four Trustees are also appointed by the King, three as ex-officio appointments: the Director of the Royal Collection, the Keeper of the Privy Purse and the Lord Chamberlain. The remaining Trustees are appointed by the Secretary of State, two ex-officio: the Constable of the Tower of London and the Chairman of the Campaign Board.[a] The Chief Executive is granted a general delegation to act on behalf of Trustees, save for reserved matters.[3]

The current Chief Executive is John Barnes, who has been in place since 2017. Lucy Worsley and Tracy Borman are co-curators for the charity. [4]

Tower of London
Tower of London
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace
State Apartments King's Gallery Kensington Palace
State Apartments, Kensington Palace
Banqueting House at Whitehall
Banqueting House at Whitehall
Kew Palace
Kew Palace
Queen Charlotte's Cottage, Kew Gardens
Queen Charlotte's Cottage, Kew Gardens
Great Pagoda, Kew Gardens
Great Pagoda, Kew Gardens

History

[edit]

The unoccupied Royal palaces

[edit]

Management of the unoccupied Royal palaces in London was consolidated in the Office of Works over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Informal tours of Hampton Court Palace had been available since the Elizabethan era, and by the 18th century access to the Palace and tours of the Royal Collection were arranged for small groups by the housekeeper, and included in tourists' guide books.[5] Hampton Court Palace was officially opened to the public in November 1838,[6] and the Office of Works made responsible for opening the Palace from Sunday to Thursday (closing Friday for cleaning).[7]

The War Office and its predecessor bodies[b] had managed the Tower of London since the 15th century, using the White Tower as its headquarters and surrounding buildings for storage.[8] Responsibility for the repair and restoration of the external elevations of 'buildings of historical or national interest in the charge of the War Office' was transferred to the Office of Works in 1898, with the War Office retaining operational control of the active sites.[c] The Tower, along with all its military buildings, staff and tourist income[d] was fully transferred to the Office of Works in 1903.[9]

Kew Palace and Queen Charlotte's Cottage in Kew Gardens were transferred to the Office of Works in a deal brokered by its Permanent Secretary Lord Esher, whereby in exchange the dilapidated Kensington Palace would be renovated as a residence for Queen Victoria's children, and its State Apartments opened to the public.[10]

The formation of Historic Royal Palaces

[edit]

In 1970 the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works[e] was absorbed into the Department of the Environment,[f] a super-ministry created by the newly-elected Heath government. The Ancient Monuments Department was amalgamated with the listed buildings section of the former Ministry of Housing in 1972 to create the Directorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings (DAMHB) as a specialised and autonomous body overseeing English heritage monuments and buildings.[11]

The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission (soon to be known as English Heritage) was created in 1984[g] by the Thatcher government to move the management of historic buildings from DAMHB outside of direct government control. The government did not think it appropriate however that the unoccupied royal palaces be included in the transfer (for fear of the appearance of privatisation), and the regulatory status of the palaces remain split across several bodies[h] until a catastrophic fire at Hampton Court Palace in 1986 highlighted the deficiencies in the buildings' management.[i][12]

After several changes in management and oversight, the unoccupied palaces were transferred out of the Department of the Environment to a dedicated executive agency called Historic Royal Palaces on 1 October 1989, to be run as a commercial businesses under a chief executive. In 1998 Historic Royal Palaces became an independent charity contracted by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to manage the London palaces on behalf of The King in Right of Crown, and in 2014 by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to manage Hillsborough Castle.[13]

In 2023, the University of Manchester partnered with Historic Royal Palaces to carry out research on the British monarchy's link to slavery with full access to the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection. The study is expected to be completed by 2026.[14]

See also

[edit]

Notes and references

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ A specialist fundraising committee.
  2. ^ e.g. The Board of Ordnance
  3. ^ The Tower of London, Edinburgh Castle and Dover Castle.
  4. ^ Circa £2,500 per annum.
  5. ^ Successor to the Office of Works
  6. ^ Along with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Ministry of Transport.
  7. ^ Under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983
  8. ^ Including English Heritage (advisory), the Property Services Agency (buildings and maintenance), and the Department of Environment (management).
  9. ^ During an October 1986 site visit a delegation including Secretary of State for the Environment Nicholas Ridley and his wife became trapped in a lift for nearly two hours.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Historic Royal Palaces, registered charity no. 1068852". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  2. ^ a b c d Historic Royal Palaces 2023, p. 3.
  3. ^ Historic Royal Palaces 2023, p. 18.
  4. ^ "Directors' biographies". Historic Royal Palaces. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  5. ^ Thurley 2003, p. 317-318.
  6. ^ Davis 2024.
  7. ^ Thurley 2013, p. 20.
  8. ^ Impey & Parnell 2000, p. 47.
  9. ^ Thurley 2013, p. 16-19, 50-51.
  10. ^ Thurley 2013, pp. 51–52.
  11. ^ Thurley 2013, p. 235-236.
  12. ^ Thurley 2003, pp. 357, 383–386.
  13. ^ "Who we are: History". Historic Royal Palaces. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  14. ^ Witchell, Nicholas; Andersson, Jasmine (6 April 2023). "King Charles supports study into Royal Family slavery links". BBC News. Retrieved 6 April 2023.

Sources

[edit]

Davis, John R. (2024). "An Act of 'Queenly Beneficence'? A Historical Investigation of the Opening of Hampton Court Palace to the Public in the Nineteenth Century". The Court Historian. 29 (1): 17–32.

Historic Royal Palaces (31 March 2023). Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2023 (Report).

Impey, Edward; Parnell, Geoffrey (2000). The Tower of London: The Official Illustrated History. Merrell Publishers in association with Historic Royal Palaces. ISBN 978-1-85894-106-6.

Thurley, Simon (2013). Men from the Ministry: how Britain saved its Heritage. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300195729.

Thurley, Simon (2003). Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300102232.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historic_Royal_Palaces&oldid=1256216728"