Key

Steel key with a solid oval shaped bow with a crowned 'VR HP Pleasure Gardens No. 131' inscribed on the obverse and 'Lady Otway Grosvenor Sqe Not Transferable' inscribed on the reverse. It was used to unlock a private entrance to Hyde Park Pleasure Gardens.

The development of the Grosvenor Estate and Knightsbridge in the 18th century created the demand for private access to Hyde Park from wealthy local residents. Many of the grand houses had gardens that backed onto the park. In the 1790s a number of private gates were built in the surrounding wall. The key to each gate was licensed to the individual owner by George III. In 1804 the King refused to allow any more 'private doors' to be built.

Hyde Park was owned by the crown and managed by the Office of Works, a department of the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. The park was redeveloped in the 1820s by the architect Decimus Burton. Gradually the wall was replaced by iron railings and gates so local residents could see into the park from their homes. An area on the eastern side of the park bordering the Grosvenor Estate was enclosed to create a garden.

The privileged few who were granted private access to Hyde Park had to pay for the construction of the gates by the Office of Works. Individually numbered keys were issued by the Office of Works and were non-transferable for security reasons. The keys could only be used within the opening hours determined by the monarch.

This key was issued to Lady Otway of 13 Grovesnor Square. Born Frances Blicke (Novermber 1780-25 November 1872) in Surrey, she married army officer Sir Loftus William Otway on 19 November 1811 in Bloomsbury, Middlesex. They had three children together. Frances is mentioned in Mayhew: ''Lady Otway Cave, she is very good to us; she gives seventy or eighty of us 1s. each every fust of May; but the butler, like a many more, I am told, takes advantage of the blind, and puts them off with 6d., and takes a receipt from them for 1s'. The family has a burial plot in Highgate Cemetery.