Historic Royal Palaces

• 1. Introduction

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  Historic Royal Palaces keeps the lights on at five of England's most storied sites without receiving a single pound from the government or the Crown. That financial independence is not a footnote. It shapes every decision the charity makes, from how many staff work the ticket desks to how many stone blocks can be repointed in a given year. The organisation manages the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the State Apartments and Orangery at Kensington Palace, the Banqueting House on Whitehall, and Kew Palace with Queen Charlotte's Cottage and the Great Pagoda. It also manages Hillsborough Castle in County Down, the King's official residence in Northern Ireland. How did a collection of unoccupied royal buildings end up in the hands of an independent charity? What does it actually cost to keep a moat filled and a Tudor kitchen open to the public? And what happens when a catastrophic fire forces the government's hand?

• 2. A Fire Changes Everything

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  A fire at Hampton Court Palace in 1986 exposed just how fragmented the management of the unoccupied royal palaces had become. At the time, responsibility for these buildings was split across several government bodies with no single authority in clear control. The fire was the trigger that forced a rethink. The path to that moment had been building for decades. In 1970, the Ministry of Public Building and Works was absorbed into the Department of the Environment, a super-ministry created by the newly elected Heath government. By 1972, the Ancient Monuments Department had merged with the listed buildings section of a former housing ministry to form the Directorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings. Then, in 1984, the Thatcher government created the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, soon known as English Heritage, to move management of historic properties out of direct government control. The unoccupied royal palaces were deliberately left out of that transfer. Officials feared it would look like privatisation. So the palaces drifted without a proper home until the Hampton Court fire made inaction impossible. On the 1st of October 1989, the palaces were transferred to a dedicated executive agency called Historic Royal Palaces, designed from the start to operate as a commercial enterprise under a chief executive. Nine years later, in 1998, Historic Royal Palaces became an independent charity. Hillsborough Castle joined its remit in 2014, contracted through the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

• 3. Self-Sufficiency on a Grand Scale

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  In the year to the 31st of March 2025, Historic Royal Palaces brought in total income of £138.6 million. More than half of that, £84.7 million, came from ticket admissions alone. Of that admission income, £68.3 million, or 81 percent, was collected at a single site: the Tower of London. The Tower welcomed 2,817,852 visitors in 2025, dwarfing Hampton Court Palace's 782,780 and Kensington Palace's 429,025. The organisation's 160,622 members contributed £6.4 million in membership income. Retail sales from on-site gift shops and online trading added another £20 million. Functions and events raised £7.8 million on top of that. Total expenditure for the same period was £108.4 million. Of that, £91.3 million went directly to charitable activities: £36.3 million on conservation work and building maintenance, and £45.8 million on exhibitions, special events, schools programmes, and community events. The pandemic years tested this model to its limits. When the UK confirmed a COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, visitor numbers began falling from mid-February. By the 20th of March all sites were closed and the organisation was effectively put into hibernation. The Board of Trustees drew on reserves to keep the charity alive. A £3 million grant from the Culture Recovery Fund supported conservation projects. In January 2021 a further £40 million repayable loan followed. Income for the 2020-21 financial year fell to £12 million, a drop of 89 percent against budget. Ultimately, 284 staff were made redundant.

• 4. The Palaces and Their Stories

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  The Tower of London was founded toward the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. Over the centuries it served as an armoury, a treasury, a prison, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England. Hampton Court Palace traces its origins to 1514, when Cardinal Wolsey began construction of a royal residence. Henry VIII took it over after Wolsey's fall in 1530. The palace later underwent extensive renovation in the Baroque style during the reign of William III, with Christopher Wren as designer. Queen Victoria opened it to the public in November 1838, and it now draws visitors with 60 acres of gardens and a Magic Garden adventure playground alongside its Tudor interiors. Kensington Palace is marketed as the birthplace and childhood home of Queen Victoria. The Jewel Room there holds jewellery commissioned by Victoria herself. The Banqueting House on Whitehall is the only large surviving component of the Palace of Whitehall. Its ceiling painting was commissioned by Charles I from Rubens, and the building marks the site of Charles I's execution. At Kew, the Great Pagoda was built in 1761 by Sir William Chambers as a present for Princess Augusta, who founded the gardens. The Royal Kitchens at Kew Palace are among the site's chief attractions. Hillsborough Castle in County Down offers 100 acres of gardens and castle State Rooms, and serves as the King's official residence when visiting Northern Ireland.

• 5. Collections and Custody

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  The Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection holds approximately 11,000 items, ranging from royal and court ceremonial dress to individual pieces like the Rockingham Mantua and the Travolta Dress. It was established at Kensington Palace in 1984. The general collection runs to around 10,000 items: paintings, drawings, prints, furniture, sculpture, furnishing textiles, decorative arts, and social history objects, displayed primarily within the historic furnished interiors. The architectural drawings archive contains approximately 22,000 accessioned items. A further archive of roughly 30,000 un-accessioned architectural drawings covering the late 19th and 20th centuries is held as a public record under place-of-deposit status at the Tower of London. Archaeological and architectural materials salvaged or excavated from the palaces account for a further 10,000 items, used primarily as a research archive. Alongside these owned collections, Historic Royal Palaces displays items on loan. Around 8,000 items from the Royal Collection, owned by the King on behalf of the nation and administered by The Royal Collection Trust, are displayed and stored at the palaces. The Royal Armouries contributes approximately 900 items of arms, armour, and related material at the Tower of London. Hillsborough Castle displays around 1,500 items from its own artwork collection. A private owner also loans jewellery associated with Queen Victoria for display at Kensington Palace.

• 6. Governance and Scholarship

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  Historic Royal Palaces operates under a Royal Charter and holds charitable status. Its Board consists of a Chair and eleven Trustees, all non-executive and unpaid. The Chair is appointed by the King on the advice of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The Constable of the Tower of London and the Chairman of the Campaign Board sit as ex-officio Trustee appointments made by the Secretary of State. The Director of the Royal Collection, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, and the Lord Chamberlain hold ex-officio positions appointed by the King. John Barnes has served as Chief Executive since 2017. In February 2025, Eleri Lynn succeeded Lucy Worsley and Tracy Borman as Chief Curator; Borman remains as Chief Historian. The buildings themselves are owned by the King in right of the Crown, with Historic Royal Palaces contracted by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to manage the five London sites. Hillsborough Castle, owned by the Government rather than the Crown, is managed under a separate contract with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The charity's trading arm, Historic Royal Palaces Enterprises Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary handling commercial activities. In 2023, the charity partnered with the University of Manchester on a doctoral research project examining the British monarchy's connections to slavery, with researchers granted full access to the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection. That study is expected to be completed by 2026.