Catalogue description Office of Works and successors: Royal Parks and Pleasure Gardens:London Region Estate Management: Registered Files (prefix LRE/D)

In 1851 the Commissioners of the Office of Works were made responsible for all duties related to the maintenance of the Royal Parks and gardens. The First Commissioner also had specialised powers in connection with the regulation of certain commons and open spaces elsewhere in London.

For the next 140 years the Royal Parks continued to be administered as a distinct unit within the Office of Works and its successors, headed by the Bailiff of the Royal Parks.

From 1970 responsibility for the Royal Parks passed (from the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works) to the newly created Department of the Environment (DoE). The Parks were administered through the Directorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings which was renamed the Heritage and Royal Estate Directorate in 1987. A specialist agency within DoE - the Property Services Agency (PSA) - created in 1972, managed and maintained the Parks through its Special Services Group (SSG).

The London Region of the PSA was established in about 1974. as successors to the Directorate of Works (London). PSA was restructured in 1990, and from 1991 DoE began reviewing its responsibility for the Royal Parks and the Royal Parks Constabulary. In 1992 responsibility for most of DoE's heritage matters passed to the Department of National Heritage (DNH), renamed the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) in 1997.

The 1992 report of the Royal Parks (Jenkins) Review Group was followed by the publication of new policy guidance for the administration of the Royal Parks and resulted in the establishment of the Royal Parks Agency (RPA) in 1993, as an Executive Agency sponsored by the Royal Estate Division of the Department of National Heritage.

The Royal Parks Agency was to manage and police the eight royal parks in London (St James's Park, The Green Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park, and Bushy Park) and some other open spaces in central London (Brompton Cemetery, Primrose Hill, Victoria Tower Gardens, Parliament Square Gardens and Grosvenor Square Gardens). In addition RPA was to maintain (but not police) Nos. 10, 11, and 12 Downing Street Gardens, Canning Green, St Margaret's Church Green, Poets Green and the Longford River (except in Hampton Court Park).

The parks belong to the Queen in right of the Crown, but the Secretary of State had responsibility under the Crown Lands Act of 1851 for funding, management, upkeep, security and presentation to the public. Under the Greater London Authority Act 1999, the function of the Secretary of State under s. 22 of the Crown Lands Act 1851 relating to responsibility for the care, control, management and regulation of Parliament Square Gardens was transferred to the Greater London Authority (GLA) with effect from October 2000.

The Royal Parks Agency included the Royal Parks Constabulary. This Park Keeping Force of the Royal Parks had been created as a special force under the Parks Regulations Act 1872. The Force was renamed The Royal Parks Constabulary (RPC) in 1974.

The area policed by the RPC was not identical to that managed by the Royal Parks Agency (RPA). RPC had additional responsibility for Tower Gardens, the Natural History Museum Gardens, Abingdon Street Garden, and Hampton Court Park Gardens and Green. Policing of Hyde Park was the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police until it was transferred to RPC in 1993 on the recommendation of the Jenkins Review Group, to coincide with the establishment of the RPA.

Responsibility for policing the Royal Parks was transferred to the Metropolitan Police in 2004, and the Royal Parks Constabulary had ceased to exist by 2006.