“Somewhere between 600 and one years old” is what chief executive Andrew Scattergood says when asked the age of the organisation he heads up. Greenwich Park in South East London is the oldest of the eight parks that the charity now manages, having been enclosed in 1433. But the organisation has only been operating in its current state as a charity for just over a year.

The government’s Royal Parks Agency merged with the small Royal Parks Foundation charity to become a separate legal entity in March 2017 before registering as a charity the following July. Scattergood joined the Royal Parks Agency in 2015, and television presenter Loyd Grossman was appointed by the government as chair in 2016.