Key

Steel key with a solid oval shaped bow with a crowned 'VR No.77 HP Pleasure Gardens' inscribed on the obverse and 'H.L. Wickham Esqr Not Transferable' inscribed on the reverse.

This key provided access to Hyde Park Pleasure Gardens. The exact location of this part of the park is no longer known, but it thought to have been on the eastern side of the Royal Park. As a Pleasure Garden, it would have been reserved for wealthy residents to promenade and socialise in seclusion. Between 1790 and 1804, local householders paid the Office of Works to construct private gates through the park walls into Hyde Park. For at least another four decades after, the Office issued individually numbered, non-transferable keys, granting entry only during permitted hours.

This key is numbered 77 and belonged to civil servant Henry Lewis Wickham (1789-1864). His roles included receiver-general of Gibraltar, commissioner of excise enquiry, chairman of the board of stamps and taxes, and commissioner of public loan. Henry married Lucy Wickham nee Markham (c.1805-1885), daughter of William Markham of Becca Hall, Yorkshire. The couple had three children and lived at 15 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, where Henry died in 1864. The museum also owns Lucy's key, see 55.94/64.