PALACES
See Also: THE CHAPELS ROYAL; HERITAGE; LIBERTIES Coldharbour; PALACES,
DISAPPEARED & FORMER; PARLIAMENT The Palace of Westminster; PUBS The Board
of Green Cloth; ROYAL RESIDENCES; ROYALTY; THE TOWER OF LONDON Royal Palace
Buckingham Palace
King
George III was one of the few pre-20thC examples of a male British
sovereign who had a virtuous domestic life.1 In 1761 the monarch bought Buckingham House
from the Sheffield family. In 1775 he
gave it to his wife Queen Charlotte.2 The couple occupied the building as their
private residence; their official one continued to be at St James s
Palace. In 1818 the queen bequeathed the
House to their son the Prince Regent.
The
prince succeeded to the throne as King George IV. In his new position he concluded that Carlton
House, his pet architectural project in London, was no longer grand enough for
him. During the 1820s Buckingham Palace
was remodelled by John Nash. The
architect went over budget. Upon the
accession of George s younger brother, King William IV, the man was replaced on
the project by Edward Blore. However,
the work was not finished during the new monarch s reign. He did not like Buckingham Palace. When Palace of Westminster burned down, he
offered it to Parliament in the hope of being rid of it. Melbourne declined the tender.
Queen
Victoria had been raised in Kensington Palace.
She marked her accession to the throne in 1837 by taking up residence in
Buckingham Palace. She made it the
principal royal residence. Her husband
Prince Albert died in 1861. She spent
most of the rest of her reign living away from London. During the late 1860s and early 1870s there
was a strong wave of republicanism in England.
This appears to have started waning in 1872 after the queen attended a
service of thanksgiving at St Paul s Cathedral.
This was held to express gratitude for the recovery of the Prince of
Wales from a case of typhoid. The
residual popular image of Victoria is one that was largely created for her
during the final years of her reign by the Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin
Disraeli. In 1877 the premier had her
crowned as the Empress of India.
Edward
VII appreciated in a way that his mother, Queen Victoria, did not, that the
public and ceremonial aspects of the monarchy were important to its
maintenance. At his death he left the
institution in a more vital condition than it had been at his accession. His son, George V, was to retain his throne
while several of their kinsmen were to lose theirs.
Location:
Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA (orange, white)
See
Also: ARCHES Marble Arch; ASSASSINATIONS & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS
Majestic Targets, Constitution Hill; DOGS Royal Dogs, Corgis et al., That Was
Much Better ...; FLAGS The Royal Standard; GALLERIES The Royal Collection, The
Queen s Gallery; GARDENS & PLANTS Royal Garden Parties; HORSES Mews, The
Royal Mews; THE WHITBY TRADE
Website:
www.royal.uk/buckingham-palace www.rct.uk/visit/buckingham-palace
1. Edward VI was another.
However, that may have been because he died young.
2. In turn, Queen Charlotte gave up Somerset House, the traditional
palace of the king s consort.
Death
In The Garden
In 1996
it was reported that a fox had either killed or scared to death six flamingos
that lived on an ornamental pond in the Palace gardens. This was in spite of the fact that the
grounds were surrounded by a brick wall that was topped with barbed wire.1
See
Also: BIRDS; CARS Deathbed Undertaking
1. Llamas have a reputation for being inclined to attack foxes. As a result, some sheep farmers put them in
with their flocks as a means of protecting lambs from being predated by foxes. However, the average llama would probably
regard Buckingham Palace Gardens as a giant smorgasbord rather than as a field
of valour upon which to perform deeds of chivalry for flamingo-kind.
Hampton Court Palace
At the
start of his reign Henry VIII inherited about twenty royal residences. At his death there were over 70.
During
Henry VIII s reign 26 million bricks were laid at Hampton Court.
Location:
Hampton Court Way, East Molesey, KT8 9AU
Website:
www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace
Historic Royal Palaces
Historic
Royal Palaces is a charity that was set up in 1998 to manage the Tower of
London, Kensington Palace, The Banqueting House, Hampton Court Palace, and Kew
Palace.
See
Also: GALLERIES The Royal Collection, The Royal Collection Trust
Website:
www.hrp.org.uk
Kensington Palace
The 2nd
Earl of Nottingham sold Kensington House to King William III and Queen Mary II
in 1689. The building became known as
Kensington Palace. The Dutchman resided
it in order to be close to London. For
him, its principal attraction was that it located to the west of London. Therefore, it was exposed to the prevailing
westerly winds. Thus, its quality of its
air was better than that of the metropolis.
This afforded monarch some relief from the asthma with which he was
afflicted.1 The architects
Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor designed extensions to Kensington
Palace, as well as making alterations to it.
The
Palace was the principal royal residence until 1760. Since then, it has been used as a place to
park assorted royal relatives in. The
young Queen Victoria lived there prior to her accession to the throne in 1837.
Location: Kensington Gardens, W8 4PX
(red, blue)
See
Also: FRUIT Citrus Fruits, Oranges, Kensington Palace Orangery; HORSES
Rotten Row; ROADS The King s Road, Royal Avenue; THE ROYAL PARKS Kensington
Gardens; WEATHER Wind
Website:
www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace
1. Hampton Court Palace, several miles to the west, which was King
William III s favourite English residence.
The
State Apartments
In
1889, upon the occasion of Queen Victoria s 70th birthday, the State
Apartments of Kensington Palace were opened to the public. In 1912 the complex was used to accommodate
the London Museum. Two years later the
institution moved to Lancaster House and the Apartments were closed. In 1923 they were re-opened.
Website:
www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/whats-on/the-kings-state-apartments
St James s Palace
In the
Middle Ages the ground upon which St James s now stands was marshland. Therefore, it was physically isolated from
London. As such, it was taken to be
well-suited to providing the location for a lepers hospital.
King
Henry VIII (1491-1547) acquired the property and had a house built upon it for
his second wife Anne Boleyn.
Whitehall
Palace burned down in 1698; King William III needed a formal home that was
located conveniently for both Westminster and Kensington Palace, where the
court proper resided. Thus, St James s
became the official royal residence. The
Palace was used for court functions such as levees. Queen Anne and her two Hanoverian successors
tended to follow William s example of living in a private capacity at
Kensington Palace while using St James s for official occasions.
During
the early 1810s John Nash restored and remodelled the Palace. The last members of the royal family to live
in the complex for many years were two of King George III s sons - the Duke of
York and the Duke of Clarence (the future William IV). Following George IV s accession in 1820, the
new monarch supplied his two younger brothers with the financial wherewithal to
start building their own grandiose townhouses (Lancaster House and Clarence
House).
Queen
Victoria succeeded to the throne in 1837.
She decided to make Buckingham Palace the principal royal residence in
London. A number of court functions were
transferred to it. However, St James s
continues to be the Crown s statutory seat.
All foreign ambassadors and high commissioners who are posted to London
officially represent their home governments at the Court of St James s.1
Location:
Marlborough Road, SW1A 1BQ (blue, turquoise)
See
Also: CLASS The College of Arms; DISEASES Leprosy, St James s Palace;
EMBASSIES; THE ROYAL PARKS St James s Park
Website:
www.royal.uk/royal-residences-st-jamess-palace
1. High Commissioners - the representatives of Commonwealth countries -
are accredited to the government.
David
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