Historic Royal Palaces
Historic Royal Palaces is a legally independent non-profit organization that manages the uninhabited palaces of the British royal family on behalf of the British Ministry of Culture . The organization manages:
- The Tower of London
- Hampton Court Palace
- Kensington Palace - public spaces only.
- Banqueting House
- Kew Palace
The tasks include the maintenance and care of the palaces and the associated parks and gardens. It is intended to bring the palaces closer to the public through various measures, e.g. B. by opening the locks for sightseeing. A total of around 3.2 million people visit the palaces that require entry each year.
The organization is financed by entrance fees, economic activities, donations and membership fees, it does not receive any public funding. The organization is also financed through the publication of books and brochures.
The interior of most of the palaces is owned by the British Crown, while the arms collection in the Tower of London is owned by the Royal Armories .
The uninhabited palaces continue to belong to the British royal family, which is also not allowed to sell them under British law. According to the Crown Lands Act 1851 , however, the British state is responsible for the administration of the no longer used palaces. From the 19th to the late 20th century, the palaces were looked after by various government agencies. The joint administration only came about in 1989 when the Historic Royal Palaces were established as a department within the Ministry of the Environment. As part of the privatizations in the UK in the 1990s, the Historic Royal Palaces also gained independence on April 1, 1998. Since then, neither the British state nor the British royal family have sponsored them.
Both emissaries of the royal household and the constables of the Tower sit on the board of trustees of Historic Royal Palaces .
