May 14: The Crown Estate

Everyday, people visit land owned by the Crown Estate. If you have been to the seaside recently, you may have done just that yourself.

The Crown Estate owns a lot of land, and manages it for the Crown. This includes land offshore, and also property in cities, including estates such as Windsor. This means real estate, property, farmland and industries such as offshore wind energy.

The Crown Estate has an Open Data Portal where map data can be downloaded for use in GIS packages.

From the site:

This includes some of central London's best places to work, shop and spend time, and vibrant retail and leisure destinations across the country. As manager of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we play a role in UK's world-leading offshore wind sector. Our coastal holdings include around half the foreshore and we have a substantial rural portfolio. We are also responsible for the Windsor Estate, including Windsor Great Park.

A series of documents can also be downloaded, such as this PDF report showing their retail park portfolio. (PDF download from link).