Key

This steel key, engraved ‘V R HP Pleasure Gardens No 160’ on one side and ‘Earl of Lincoln Not Transferable’ on the other, opened a privately licensed gate from the Mayfair side of Hyde Park into the Hyde Park Pleasure Garden, a fenced-off area on the park’s eastern edge. Each gate required explicit royal permission to construct, and although no new entrances were authorised after 1804, the Office of Works continued issuing numbered, non-transferable keys for the remaining gates throughout the early Victorian period.

The key’s owner was the Earl of Lincoln, a courtesy title held during this date range by Henry Pelham-Clinton (1811-1864), later 5th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne. As Earl of Lincoln he served as MP for South Nottinghamshire and became a prominent member of Sir Robert Peel’s government, holding office as Chief Secretary for Ireland and First Commissioner of Woods and Forests. In the latter post he oversaw aspects of Crown lands and royal parks - including Hyde Park itself - making his possession of a Pleasure Garden key a neat reflection of both his official responsibilities and his place within London’s political elite.

The Pleasure Garden has long since disappeared as a defined space, but keys such as this one mark the period when Hyde Park contained private gateways used only by those with the permission - and the social standing - to hold a key.