A Park, a Policy and No Price

For five days in October, London’s two largest art fairs stand on the grass of a royal park. The freehold belongs to the Crown Estate, by Wikipedia’s account. A charity, The Royal Parks, manages the park and lets it for events. A separate statutory body, the Crown Estate Paving Commission, runs the private roads at its edge. Two boroughs divide it on the map. Not one of them publishes what Frieze pays to be there.

Other host cities keep fewer secrets. In Paris, the price of the Grand Palais slot was reported when the contract was awarded in 2022: €10.6 million for seven years, before technical costs, according to The Art Newspaper. In Miami Beach, the convention center rent is bargained over in the local press, offer by offer. London has a published events policy, a published road notice from last year, and no published fee, term or renewal date.

The Royal Parks states its rules in public: organizers pay to repair the ground and lodge a bond first. Frieze has given Parliament its own count of visitors, staff and wages. The agreement between them was looked for and not found.

What follows separates the known from the unknown: the park, the authorities, the money, the national rules, the footprint beyond the tents, and a comparison with Paris and Miami Beach. Where the research found nothing, the page says so. The fairs are on The Fairs, the people who run them on People. Biennale is free to read.

The Regent’s Park covers 410 acres, a figure that, like the Crown Estate’s freehold, rests here on Wikipedia alone. Its day-to-day keeper is better documented. The Royal Parks is a charity, and its own pages say the money from major events supports its work.

Who Manages What

The park’s edges answer to someone else. The Crown Estate Paving Commission describes itself as the manager of eleven miles of pavements, 28 private roads, 29 garden enclosures and five sets of park gates around Regent’s Park and Carlton House Terrace. It is funded by statutory rates on occupiers of Crown Estate property in its area.

In October 2025 the commission posted a notice for that year’s fairs: Park Square West open only to residents, their guests and contractors from 9 am to 9 pm, its entry gates shut for the first two days, and Brunswick Place closed throughout. The equivalent notice for 2026 was not found.

The Events Policy

The clearest public document is The Royal Parks’ policy on hosting major events, dated September 2025. It names two fixed sites for major events in The Regent’s Park, Marylebone Green and Gloucester Green, and says they currently hold Frieze and Taste of London. It will consider one more there, subject to the season and to the time the ground needs to recover after those two.

The same paper puts the cost of maintaining the parks at around £65 million a year and says about 45% of the charity’s self-generated income comes from events. A Royal Parks spokesperson gave around £75 million to a local paper in February 2026. Both figures are the charity’s own.

Two Greens

Frieze London takes Marylebone Green, on the south side. Frieze Masters takes Gloucester Green, to the northeast. The policy sets no limit on build days and no maximum share of the park, at least in the document as read. The charity’s listing for 2026 gives the fair dates, October 14 to 18, and no build dates.

Time Out reported in 2015 that the structure took 120 people about a month. Frieze told Parliament that around 800 workers were involved in construction and take-down in 2025. The local paper cited below likens the two sites to six football pitches. A hectare figure was not found.

Reinstatement and the Bond

Organizers must pay in full to reinstate the parks after an event, and the charity takes a bond from them in advance against the expected cost. The size of Frieze’s bond is not published. Nor is the fee, the length of the agreement, or any break clause.

The Grass, 2025–26 Single source

One dispute has reached print, and it rests on one report. Westminster Extra, a local weekly, reported on February 24, 2026, that both greens had been out of bounds for months after the October 2025 fairs. Closure signs promised a reopening in November, the paper said, then January, then March. Residents it quoted objected to a public field used for commercial art sales and left as mud, and to signs whose dates kept moving. The paper also stated that no public record shows what Frieze pays the charity.

Both parties replied. The Royal Parks said it works with organizers to limit disruption, that the fairs occupy the two greens while the rest of the park stays open, and that major events raise funds which go back into the parks. Frieze said it works with the charity to protect and fully reinstate the areas it uses, “with comprehensive ground-protection measures in place,” that it tells residents in advance, and that the week brings a free sculpture display and trade to local businesses.

In September 2021 a reader’s letter in the Camden New Journal objected to the time taken to put the fair up and take it down, and asked why local people get no discount.

What Was Not Found

The Friends of Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill have published no objection and no statement of support that this research could find. Their October 2025 update mentions only Frieze Sculpture and a guided walk. No freedom-of-information ruling about Frieze was found either. The one Information Commissioner decision opened, from 2012, upheld redactions, on commercial grounds, in a Royal Parks contract for Olympic test events in Greenwich Park. It does not mention Frieze.

The Regent’s Park is split for administrative purposes between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, according to Wikipedia. Which tent stands in which borough was not established by any source read, and this page will not assign one.

JustPark says the area falls within controlled parking zones of both councils.

No premises licence for either fair was identified. Camden’s planning and licensing records returned many results for the search terms, none of them recognizable as a Frieze licence. No road closure or parking suspension order for the 2026 build was found. No statement about the fair by Westminster or Camden was found. The Paving Commission’s 2025 notice is the only official document on the fair’s effect on the streets that the research turned up.

City Hall is no louder. No statement on Frieze by the Mayor of London or by London & Partners from 2025 or 2026 was found, and no reference to the fair in the Greater London Authority’s culture strategy. The last sighting is from October 2023, when the Mayor launched his London Creates campaign at Frieze London, as USA Art News reported.

What Visitors Meet

The fair’s own FAQ says there are a limited number of pay-and-display spaces in the park and that both fairs lie outside the Congestion Charge zone. It is blunter about buses: “Coaches are not allowed into the park. The nearest drop-off point is Baker Street Station.” Getting there without a car is covered in Park & Rain.

No published estimate of Frieze week’s economic impact on London was found. Not from Frieze, not from the Mayor, not from London & Partners. Miami Beach officials put a figure of $400 million to $500 million a year on their fair, as Hoodline reported in July.

Frieze’s Own Figures

What exists is the organizer’s account. In October 2025 Frieze submitted written evidence to Parliament; the committee it went to was not stated in the text read. It counts 90,000 visitors from 108 countries in 2025 and more than 400 museum and patron groups from over 45 countries. It gives 180 staff worldwide, 130 of them in Britain, plus 180 temporary staff over the fair period, about 800 workers on the build, and 4,000 people working on site while the fairs are open. It asks for nothing on tax, visas or a levy. These are a company’s figures about itself.

Hotels

October is a busy month for London hotels with or without a fair. In October 2025, Greater London hotels ran at 83% room occupancy, against 84% a year earlier, at an average daily rate of £225, up 3% from £219, according to the VisitEngland occupancy survey.

Time Out’s 2015 piece credited fair visitors with 60,367 hotel nights across London in fair week, without giving the year of the data.

The Market Around It

The fair sits in the world’s second-largest art market. The United Kingdom sold $10.5 billion of art in 2025, up 2%, for 18% of a $59.6 billion world total, according to the Art Basel and UBS report. Art fairs accounted for 35% of dealers’ turnover worldwide, the highest share since 2022. London’s portion of the British total was not found. The nearest proxy is ArtTactic’s count of London auctions in the first half of 2026, $1.42 billion, as The Art Newspaper reported.

Stand Prices

The main section cost £524 per square meter in 2021 and £540 in 2022, a 3% rise, with Focus stands at £248 to £348, according to The Art Newspaper. Wikipedia gives a different 2022 figure, £631, and puts the first fair in 2003 at £180. This page follows the newspaper. Prices for 2023 to 2026 were not found. Frieze announced sliding-scale pricing in 2018, the same paper noted then, in a survey that found fairs reluctant to publish their rates.

Visitors by Year

Most years between 2003 and 2024 are missing because no figure was found.

Three decisions in Whitehall bear on a visitor to Frieze week. One is settled, one is pending, and one is a £20 form.

Free Admission, Confirmed

On September 28, 2026, the culture secretary confirmed that overseas visitors will not be charged to enter the national museums, as The Art Newspaper reported. The idea had been under consideration since March. The national collections stay free at the door, with charges only for special exhibitions. The background is on the United Kingdom page, and the shows are on What to See.

The Visitor Levy, Pending

No hotel tax applies to Frieze week 2026. Nothing is in force. An Overnight Visitor Levy Bill was announced in the King’s Speech on May 13, to let mayoral authorities in England charge a levy on hotels, guest houses and short-term lets, as Travelling for Business reported. The government answered its consultation on September 10. By one trade summary, the only one read, the levy would be a percentage of the room price, with no national cap, and local investment plans would be due by March 2028. Single source The Commons debated it on September 15; that record could not be opened.

For London, the same summary says the Mayor proposes a rate capped at 5% of the room bill, and that City Hall’s analysis puts possible revenue above £350 million a year, depending on the rate.

The ETA

Most overseas visitors now need either a visa or an Electronic Travel Authorisation before they travel, according to GOV.UK. Visitors from Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia usually need the ETA. It costs £20, every traveler needs one, children and babies included, and it allows visits of up to six months. Holders of British or Irish passports do not need one. The page as read did not state how long a decision takes, so apply early.

A Standard Visitor visa costs £135 for up to six months. The business rules allow a visitor to attend trade fairs to promote a business but not to sell there. How that applies to overseas gallery staff at Frieze was not researched.

Tax on the Work Itself

Two rules shape the price of a purchase. Art imported into Britain is taxed at a reduced value, giving an effective import VAT of 5%, by HMRC’s manual. The Artist’s Resale Right applies to resales through the trade at £1,000 or more, on a scale from 4% on the first £50,000 down to 0.25% above £500,000, capped at £12,500 a sale, for the artist’s life and 70 years after. Frieze’s evidence says the right has paid more than £134 million to artists and estates. Tax-free shopping for visitors ended in Great Britain on January 1, 2021. The practical version is on London Art Scene. None of this is tax advice.

Frieze is a London company as well as a London event. It told Parliament in October 2025 that 130 of its 180 staff work in Britain. The address of its London offices was not found.

No.9 Cork Street

The permanent address the public can visit is in Mayfair. No.9 Cork Street opened in October 2021 in two converted townhouses, designed by the architects Matheson Whiteley and developed with The Pollen Estate, the landlord, as Frieze announced. Visiting galleries take it for four-week residencies, with lower fees for young galleries. It marks five years this month with two shows from October 9 to 24, by Frieze’s program: P·P·O·W with Robin F. Williams and The Third Line with Jordan Nassar.

Sustainability, in Frieze’s Words

Frieze describes itself as an active member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, with a target of halving carbon emissions and reaching near-zero waste by 2030. It says its tented events run on biofuel, that LED lighting is standard, that a 2022 waste audit led to on-site waste managers and a reusable entrance made with 75% recycled aluminum, and that it gives more than £100,000 a year to environmental charities.

One independent check exists. An audit by Hope Solutions, published by the coalition, measured Frieze London’s direct and energy emissions at 207.55 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2018 and 88.1 tonnes in 2019, a fall of 57.5%. It excludes shipping and travel. No later audit was found.

Access

Frieze’s accessibility page lists ramps at both entrances and exits, wheelchairs from the cloakrooms on a first-come basis, hearing loops at the main desks, and free tickets for companions and carers. It names Thursday from 2 pm to 5 pm and Friday from 11 am to 2 pm as the quieter times. The free public element is Frieze Sculpture, in the English Gardens until November 1.

The Other Hosts

Five more landlords have a fair that week. Each has one fact on the record.

Set side by side, the three arrangements differ less in kind than in candor. Two of the three prices are in print.

The Paris figure deserves its caveat. It was reported by a newspaper when the slot changed hands, and the same report valued the two fair slots at the Grand Palais, with Paris Photo, at €20 million or more. That is a reported contract value, not a posted lease. In Miami Beach the offers reach the press before a vote. The outcome of those talks after July 2026 was not found for this page, and the Miami guide follows them.

London’s position is the reverse of Miami’s. The conditions are public and the price is private. A reader can learn that the grass must be put back at the organizer’s expense and cannot learn what the grass costs to rent. A charity letting land to fund itself has a claim to commercial confidence. A royal park is also public ground, and the residents who spent a winter reading closure signs were asking about the terms.

The summary the record supports: Paris and Miami Beach have numbers in print. London has a policy in print and no number.

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