Key

Steel key with a solid oval shaped bow with a crowned 'VR' inscribed on the obverse and 'Honble Mrs Marshall 37 South St No 233' inscribed on the reverse.

This key provided access to Hyde Park. 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, numbered 233, was issued to Mary Alice Spring-Rice (1812-1875). In 1841 at All Souls, St Marylebone, Mary married James Garth Marshall (1802-1873), Northern flax mill owner, MP, millionaire, reformer and landowner. They had two chlidren together.