The Local Tourist: Royal Buildings

Website: http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace

Yesterday ABJ and I visited Kensington Palace. As I work nearby I've been past the place hundreds of times but I'd never actually been inside. It turned out that you got a discount of £1 if you booked your tickets online so I booked two £10 student tickets before we set out.

It was a sunny day and we arrived in the busy Kensington Gardens, entered the main approach to the palace and found the ticket desks around the back. We picked up our tickets smoothly and got out audio guide.

Unfortunately the audio guide hand-held wand was quite uncomfortable - there was a big nodule sticking out which you had to hold against your ear. It was just too big to fit inside your ear and just too small to rest your ear against, instead you continually bashed your ear lobe against it as it rattled in circles around your outer ear as you wandered the hallways. Not only that but when each audio entry finished there was no signal - just silence. This led to us holding the wands to our ears in humble uncertainty for 5-10 seconds after each entry.

We set off and learned about the ceremonial costumes that young men and women used to wear. The costumes on display were original and some were very impressive - lots of gold embroidery. Some of the more ceremonial aspects seemed very pointless - the worst beinga flattened hat which couldn't even be worn but had to be carried tucked under the arm as a sign of respect to the monarch.

There was a mock-up of a upper-class tailor's showroom where you could inspect the fabrics they used and see colonial uniforms on display. A few more rooms showed original laces and a sewing workshop. It was interesting to learn how immense the effort was to make many of the garments on display - many young women working in terrible conditions to make the finery for the upper-class. ABJ did some arty photography:

We were then treated to room after room of dresses that Princess Diana had worn. This seemingly never-ending parade of 80s and 90s dress styles is one of the main attractions to the palace but I found it fairly dull:

From this point on, in fact, the exhibits became more and more strange. There was a focus on débutantes - the young upper-class women who were presented to the King and Queen. This included a series of video interviews with the "last debs" - the practise ended in March 1958 so many of the girls presented are still alive:

There were lots of old photos of "debs" and "debs delights" (i.e. the men who dated/danced with the debs) but they didn't have very useful captions - no dates or other handy info.

The structure of the exhibits became more unusual - the path became non-linear and poorly signposted and the displays of dresses looked more and more like they'd been dreamt up by a exhibition designer left to run wild. There were huge cardboard cutouts of women curtseying, dresses displayed in rooms with mirrors on the walls, a giant 10ft tall fabric wedding cake etc etc.

After a room where you could practice walking in a straight line with a book on your head, learn how to reply to a party invitation, how to curtsey etc, there was a room with authentic nik-nacks from the good old days (e.g. "I bought these bras in Paris" etc).

We then transitioned from debs to the history of the palace and were treated to a long series of dark wood-panelled rooms with lavish tapestries and paintings. One featured a "fat Venus" and was the cause of a dispute about displaying such a grotesque painting:

There was a chance to see the view over the gardens from inside (rather than my usual view from the gardens looking in):

We toured the long line of similar rooms and marvelled at the fancy furniture. One room had a "wind dial" - a device that displayed the prevailing wind direction through a connection to a weather vane on the roof:

We were impressed by a "lantern" in the ceiling of one room/floor of another which we decided we should have in our house one day...

At length our tour ended in the busy perfumed gift shop. We took a last look at the impressive but hidden gardens:

and were then on our way.

Summary: To expensive for such a poorly put together tour.

Website: http://www.royal.gov.uk

Today I went on a tour around the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace. The palace is only open at certain times of the year and have intended to visit it ever since I first moved to London over 5 years ago!

I'd booked my £14 student ticket a few days earlier for a slot at 2pm today. I arrived and had to work hard to navigate the hordes of tourists and find the Buckingham Palace Shop where I could pick up my ticket. I then took my ticket to the Visitor Entrance at 1.45pm in time for my 2pm slot. There were lots of young helpful "wardens" dressed in smart uniforms to help the clueless tourists. We were corralled in a holding area while we waited for the "airport style security area" to empty ahead.

We finally were let through and filed slowly through the metal detectors and bag scanners. After that we snaked through to a tent to pick up our complementary audio guide. I chose the English language one, slung it around my neck, pressed the green PLAY button and set off.

As the stirring introductory music played I stepped up the red carpet and entered the Palace. I usually hate audio guides but have to admit that the one used at Buckingham Palace was really good. It provided options to select what to hear about, the information was interesting and not too lengthy and it always said things like "If you would like to then you might consider moving to the next room..." rather than the usual "Next we have...".

We began by seeing the quadrangle which is a huge open square just behind the front of the Palace. It's used for parades and for greeting heads of state. They enter the vast quadrangle through a small archway at the front and, standing right in front of them, is the formal entrance to the Palace - an imposing multi-columned entranceway.

Just inside the formal entrance is the Entrance Hall which is a large impressive room with rich red carpets, immense columns and gold decoration everywhere. From here we climbed a staircase with an intricate bronze balustrade which was made a long time ago and, in modern day money, would cost £210,000 (that's just for the balustrade alone!).

We then entered the Guards Room and the Throne Room. All the interiors were designed by architect John Nash and he must have been good. The rooms are supposed to impress visiting heads of state and diplomats and they certainly meet that goal. Everywhere is rich wallpaper, carpets, silk, golden designs, complex mouldings, vast chandeliers etc etc. The Throne Room held the coronation thrones of the Queen and Prince Philip as well as a few coronation thrones from previous monarchs. During my visit I discovered that asking questions to the older "wardens" got a better answer to my question than asking the younger ones.

Next stop was the Picture Gallery - a narrow 50ft long room with huge paintings hanging on the walls. This led to another narrow room with curved, etched skylights in the roof. Apparently there was a small fire recently that led to three of these skylights being smashed. Although they could have been replaced by modern glass makers the original workers were thoughful enough to have made 4 spare windows. These were found in the Palace carefully crated up in a store room. They were installed after waiting 100 years.

We passed a display of photos of the Queen with visiting heads of state and were then led to the Ball Room. This was one of the most impressive rooms and is where the Queen hosts state dinners for visiting heads of state. It's apparently one of the largest rooms in London and luckily had a seating area where the tourists could rest. I took a seat there amongst the prostrate visitors. It was like sitting in a battle-field hospital surrounded by the dead and the dying.

In the center of the room is a huge U-shaped table that can seat around 200 people. The Queen sits at the centre of the U with her guests on either arm ahead of her. The chinaware and silverware are layed out days in advanced and carefully measured onto the tablecloth - to ensure they're all in a perfect line when you look down the table. Each place has a number of different glasses - for red wine, white wine, port, champagne etc. I've eaten in places where they put a lot of time into the presentation I've noticed that the food is always a bit of a let down. I hope the food they serve up in the state banquets is tasty! Next was a little video display about the behind-the-scenes preparation for the banquets. All the plates etc are washed by hand because they're too valuable to entrust to a dishwashing machine.

The next few rooms all overlook the gardens at the rear of the Palace. They were differently themed and contained a variety of very fancy furniture. There was a table which once belonged to Napolean and is made of one huge disc of porclein which, by firing and gilding, was decorated with very intricate artwork that took 6 years to complete! One of the most valuable pieces in the collection was a writing desk which had layer-upon-layer of inlayed wood.

We then travelled downstairs again and into a long corridor with marble statues on display. By far the most impressive was a huge 2 metre tall statue of the gods Mars and Venus sculpted from a single block of marble.

The tour finally finished at the rear of the Palace, exiting onto the Garden Terrace. Here we returned our audio guides and were allowed to take photos once again. Immediately all the tourists whipped out their cameras and began snapping the rear-end of the Palace: