Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
excellent and include several Van Dycks, two Rembrandts, two Canalettos, a Poussin, a
de Hooch and a wonderful Vermeer. Further on, in the East Gallery, check the cherub-
fest in the grisaille frieze, before heading into the palace's rather overwrought Ballroom .
It's here that the Queen holds her State Banquets, where the annual Diplomatic
Reception takes place, and where folk receive their honours and knighthoods.
The west facade rooms
Having passed through several smaller rooms, you eventually reach the State Dining
Room , whose heavily gilded ceiling, with its three saucer domes, is typical of the suite
of rooms that overlooks the palace garden. Next door lies Nash's not very blue, but
incredibly gold, Blue Drawing Room , lined with flock wallpaper interspersed with thirty
fake onyx columns. The room contains one of George IV's most prized possessions, the
“Table of the Grand Commanders”, originally made for Napoleon, whose trompe-l'oeil
Sèvres porcelain top features cameo-like portraits of military commanders of antiquity.
Beyond the domed Music Room with its enormous semicircular bow window and
impressive parquet floor, the White Drawing Room features yet another frothy gold and
white Nash ceiling and a superb portrait of Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII. This
room is also the incongruous setting for an annual royal prank: when hosting the
reception for the diplomatic corps, the Queen and family emerge from a secret door
behind a mirror to greet the ambassadors. Before you leave the palace, be sure to check
out the Canova sculptures: Mars and Venus at the bottom of the Ministers' Staircase,
and the pornographic Fountain Nymph with Putto in the Marble Hall.
If you've booked for the Garden Highlights Tour, you'll now get shown round the
Queen's splendiferous herbaceous border, rose garden and veg patch, plus the wisteria-
strewn summer house and the tennis court where George VI and Fred Perry used to
knock up in the 1930s. There's a café overlooking the gardens if you want to linger
longer before being ejected onto busy Grosvenor Place, a long walk from the Mall.
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Queen's Gallery
Daily 10am-5.30pm • £9 • T 020 7766 7301 • ! Victoria
A modern Doric portico on the south side of the palace forms the entrance to the
Queen's Gallery , which puts on temporary exhibitions drawn from the Royal Collection ,
a superlative array of art that includes works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Holbein,
Reynolds, Gainsborough, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Rubens, Rembrandt and Canaletto, as
well as the world's largest collection of Leonardo drawings, the odd Fabergé egg and
heaps of Sèvres china. The Queen holds the Royal Collection, which is three times
larger than the National Gallery, “in trust for her successors and the nation” - note the
word order. However, with over seven thousand works spread over the numerous royal
palaces, the Queen's Gallery and other museums and galleries around the country,
you'd have to pay a king's ransom to see the lot.
Royal Mews
Feb, March & Nov Mon-Sat 10am-4pm; April-Oct daily 10am-5pm • £8.50 • T 020 7766 7302 • ! Victoria
On the south side of the palace, along Buckingham Palace Road, you'll find the Royal
Mews , built by Nash in the 1820s. The horses - or at least their backsides - can be
viewed in their luxury stables, along with an exhibition of equine accoutrements, but
it's the royal carriages, lined up under a glass canopy in the courtyard, that are the main
attraction. The most ornate is the Gold State Coach , made for George III in 1762,
smothered in 22-carat gilding and panel paintings by Cipriani, and weighing four tons,
its axles supporting four life-size Tritons blowing conches. Eight horses are needed to
pull it and the whole experience apparently made Queen Victoria feel quite sick; since
then it has only been used for coronations and jubilees. The mews also house the Royal
Family's fleet of five Rolls Royce Phantoms and three Daimlers, none of which is
obliged to carry numberplates.
 
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