Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
17
her in the same room. According to her diary, her best friends were the palace's
numerous “black beetles”. Victoria's apartments have not been preserved, but you get
to see the gloomy Red Saloon, where the 18-year-old queen held her first Privy Council
meeting, just hours after William IV's death on June 20, 1837.
Nowadays, KP - as it's fondly known in royal circles - is the o
cial London
residence of Prince William and Kate Middleton (and the uno
cial home of Prince
Harry). It's also where William's mother,
Princess Diana
, lived until her death in 1997,
although there's no access to her rooms, which were on the west side of the palace,
where the dukes and duchesses of Kent and Gloucester all still live.
The palace is home to the
Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection
, which doesn't have a
permanent display but there's always a selection exhibited. Usually you get to see a few of
the Queen's dresses - from her haute 1950s wardrobe to her more suspect later penchant
for peach-coloured frocks - and a selection of Diana's over-the-top 1980s dresses.
KP's most handsome facade faces south, behind a flamboyant statue of William III,
given to Edward VII by the Kaiser. The public entrance is on the east side, and must be
approached from the Round Pond, where George I used to keep his edible turtles, and
the Broad Walk, a favourite rollerblading avenue; both are overlooked by a flattering
statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by her daughter, Princess Louise.
INFORMATION
Tours
Some of KP's themed tours change from year to year,
others, like the King's and the Queen's State Apartments, are
permanent. Unfortunately, instead of an audioguide, the
palace offers relentlessly quirky multimedia installations.
Eating
To the north of the palace there's a lovely café in
Hawksmoor's Orangery, built for Queen Anne as a summer
dining room, and decorated with carving and statues by
Grinling Gibbons.
King's State Apartments
The palace's most impressive rooms are in the
King's State Apartments
, beginning with
the grandiose
King's Staircase
, designed by William Kent, with its Irish black marble
steps, its Tijou wrought-iron balustrade and trompe-l'oeil crowds of courtiers and
yeomen. Another great Kent creation is the “grotesque”-style painting on the ceiling
of the
Presence Chamber
, which also features a lovely pear-wood Gibbons overmantle
with weeping putti. Further on, the
Cupola Room
, with its monstrously ugly clock
occupying centre stage, features another wonderful trompe-l'oeil fresco, which gives
the effect of a coffered dome. The palace's grandest room, the
Long Gallery
, has red
damask walls hung with paintings by, among others, Tintoretto. Also of interest is the
wind dial above the fireplace, connected to the palace weather vane, built for William
III and still functioning.
Queen's State Apartments
he
Queen's State Apartments
begin with the
Queen's Gallery
, once magnificently
decorated with 154 pieces of Oriental porcelain (a mere handful remain), and instead
lined with royal portraits. At the far end is one by Peter Lely, of Anne Hyde, mistress and
later first wife of the future James II; they of
cially married after she was already heavily
pregnant, causing something of a royal scandal even in the libidinous Restoration period.
The Queen's Apartments are much more modest than the King's, wood-panelled rooms
hung with Dutch works reflecting the tastes of William and Mary, so to try and boost
their appeal, the curators have stepped up the multimedia theatrics. There's an incessant
whispering soundtrack to simulate gossip in the
Queen's Closet
, scene of a furious quarrel
between Queen Anne and her lover, the Duchess of Marlborough, after which they never
saw each other again. Eighteen little chairs are displayed to represent Queen Anne's
children, all of whom pre-deceased her, including Prince William, who died after dancing
too much on his 11th birthday. The best original decor is in the
Queen's Bedchamber
,
which boasts a four-poster bed that belonged to Queen Mary of Modena, James II's
second wife - it was here that the diminutive and corpulent Queen Anne died of gout.
