diff --git a/openerp/modules/registry.py b/openerp/modules/registry.py
index 679fae0cfc2..34672c44a78 100644
--- a/openerp/modules/registry.py
+++ b/openerp/modules/registry.py
@@ -23,13 +23,14 @@
 
 """
 from collections import Mapping
-from contextlib import contextmanager
 import logging
+import os
 import threading
 
 import openerp
 from .. import SUPERUSER_ID
-from openerp.tools import assertion_report, lazy_property
+from openerp.tools import assertion_report, lazy_property, classproperty, config
+from openerp.tools.lru import LRU
 
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -259,12 +260,27 @@ class RegistryManager(object):
         registries (essentially database connection/model registry pairs).
 
     """
-    # Mapping between db name and model registry.
-    # Accessed through the methods below.
-    registries = {}
+    _registries = None
     _lock = threading.RLock()
     _saved_lock = None
 
+    @classproperty
+    def registries(cls):
+        if cls._registries is None:
+            size = config.get('registry_lru_size', None)
+            if not size:
+                # Size the LRU depending of the memory limits
+                if os.name != 'posix':
+                    # cannot specify the memory limit soft on windows...
+                    size = 42
+                else:
+                    # On average, a clean registry take 25MB of memory + cache
+                    avgsz = 30 * 1024 * 1024
+                    size = int(config['limit_memory_soft'] / avgsz)
+
+            cls._registries = LRU(size)
+        return cls._registries
+
     @classmethod
     def lock(cls):
         """ Return the current registry lock. """
diff --git a/openerp/tools/func.py b/openerp/tools/func.py
index baeae0b1465..0a36166acee 100644
--- a/openerp/tools/func.py
+++ b/openerp/tools/func.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 #
 ##############################################################################
 
-__all__ = ['synchronized', 'lazy_property']
+__all__ = ['synchronized', 'lazy_property', 'classproperty']
 
 from functools import wraps
 from inspect import getsourcefile
@@ -103,4 +103,12 @@ def compose(a, b):
         return a(b(*args, **kwargs))
     return wrapper
 
+
+class _ClassProperty(property):
+    def __get__(self, cls, owner):
+        return self.fget.__get__(None, owner)()
+
+def classproperty(func):
+    return _ClassProperty(classmethod(func))
+
 # vim:expandtab:smartindent:tabstop=4:softtabstop=4:shiftwidth=4: