Miss Elaineous: July 2021

This was the fourth time I'd been to Kensington Palace.
I still own a brochure of theirs from 1998, when they used to house a royal ceremonial dress collection, showcasing the process of what was known as the "Drawing Room," (the significant event that we perhaps refer to as "coming out") where young ladies just out of school were presented to the king and queen by a female relation who had previously been presented. Other formal and less formal royal designs were also displayed, including couture worn by our current queen.

The second time I went was in 2002, when the wedding dresses of Queen Victoria, Queen Alexandra, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II were on display.

Here's Queen Alexandra's 1863 dress, altered so that she could wear it again. I took this photograph in 2019, in Bath's Fashion Museum, where it was on temporary display.

By this time a section dedicated Princess Diana's clothing was housed in the basement, which made my 2017 visit to see Diana: Her Fashion Story a bit of a let down, as I had seen most of the dresses on display before; either here or as parts of exhibitions in the V&A Museum.

This is the approach to the palace, taken as we walked from the direction of Kensington High Street.

Flowers left to commemorate Princess Diana (who was- to our generation- the palace's most famous previous resident) on what would have been her 60th birthday.

Is this really in the best of taste? I'm sure it was intended with goodwill but, after all, she didn't make 60 years of age.

This statue stands to the side of the palace, where we had to queue, and is of King William III (r.1689-1702).

It is in bronze and by Heinrich Baucke, and was presented to King Edward VII in 1907.

I was quite annoyed that we had to wait outside for over 20 minutes, despite having timed tickets, and turned around and captured this moody-skied view (thankfully the rain held off) over the Serpentine whilst doing so. At least they have a separate ticket office outside now, but things aren't much better than four years ago. Then, those who had pre-booked were lumped together with those who hadn't, then we all had to go through security (that part I totally understand) then snake around internal barriers to a ticket hall, where those who'd had the common sense to be organised finally got to saunter off into the depths of the palace.

The Jewel Room, and Queen Victoria's Emerald Tiara, Necklace, Earrings and Brooch were designed by her beloved husband, Prince Albert, and presented to her in 1845.

The other two tiaras belonged to her granddaughter, Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife. The design to the left can also be worn as a necklace, and dates from circa 1890.

This design was my favourite of the three, and reminds me of our current queen's Fringe Tiara (worn by her on her wedding day, and also worn by princesses Anne and Beatrice when they were brides).

This tiara can also be worn as a necklace, and was given to Louise as a 1889 wedding present by her parents, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

An impressive scale model of Kensington Palace, as we enter Victoria: A Royal Childhood. It was the first of the four sections we got to see, and this dolls' house, in a room named Young Victoria, has real-life characters from Victoria's story tucked away inside.

Research allowed the creators of these rooms to make informed decisions regarding furnishing details. The digitally printed pattern on this rich carpet dates from 1820-30.

Of course, we have to have a Vain Old Tart photograph....😁

Queen Victoria's rattle and an early Agnes Strickland biography (c.1840) with Victoria's handwritten comments, such as "Nonsense" and "Quite false" in the margins! The distraught author then destroyed most copies.

The Princess at Play, and with hindsight I have to say that this entire exhibition seemed a tad sparse.

I enjoyed looking at the architecture and fittings as much as examining the artefacts...

Victoria's dolls' house, with re-created authentic wallpaper, yet her own home life was far from ideal- although it has been suggested that problems only surfaced once she became an adolescent.

Educating Victoria, and her childhood was unhappy, due to the dominant and overbearing nature of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her mother's ambitious advisor, Sir John Conroy.

An impressive bookcase but in spite of her position of extreme privilege, the Kensington System was a strict set of rules which dictated how young Victoria should live. She was even forbidden from walking down stairs without someone holding her hand, lest her safety should be compromised.

A Royal Performance, and a grandly theatrical animated puppet theatre. Victoria wasn't allowed to play with other girls or even sleep in her own bedroom. The young princess's upbringing contained an element of surveillance, designed to break her spirit and keep her submissive.

View down across the Serpentine, with yet another queue forming. I know that these are difficult times, but it's something Kensington Palace needs to look into, as this queue needs to be kept moving.

On a creative note, I love the artistic value of this gauze shot!

In the Family Feuds room is Victoria's travelling bed, which she used mainly when she was a princess, after it was made in 1826. In her 1932 diary she described it as "my own little bed which travels always with me."

I don't remember this being labelled, but it looks like it's supposed to depict the time Victoria caught typhoid fever in Ramsgate, when she was 16. The Duchess and Conroy used this opportunity to catch her at a weak moment, trying to get her to sign a document that would have appointed Conroy her personal secretary upon her accession. But Victoria and Baroness Louise Lehzen (her governess and dearest friend) stood firm against them.

Attractive light fitting...

It has been argued that Victoria's childhood had the effect of toughening her resistance, therefore being the making of her, considering her future role as queen.

The Birthday Ball, and the room is so-called because it was where her mother held a lavish ball for Victoria's 17th birthday. Several potential husbands were invited but her first cousin, Prince Albert, was her German family's preference.

Victoria loved singing, dancing and music, and she fell in love with Albert almost instantly during that first introduction at the ball. The feeling was mutual, as recorded in both their memoirs.

This is definitely Victoria's bed and possibly her cradle, as it has been at the palace for 200 years. Victoria was born in this very room, for purposes of the tour labelled The Baby in the Palace, on 24th May 1819.

The Duchess of Kent declared that her new arrival was "a pretty little Princess, plump as a partridge." Her father, Prince Edward, died less than a year after her birth.

Becoming Queen, and the Red Saloon is where Victoria made her first public appearance as queen, just one month after her eighteenth birthday. This room must have felt pretty busy as 97 Privy Councillors gathered here to witness the signing of the Protestant oath.

Portrait of Queen Victoria over an exhibition case showing the Garter Collar and Great George, manufactured in 1837.

A crown skeleton, minus its jewels...

In 1845 the Duke of Argyll was carrying the Imperial State Crown, but it fell off its ceremonial cushion and broke. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: "It was all crushed and squashed like a pudding that had sat down."

The gems were remounted for the coronation of King George V in 1937.

A lock of Queen Victoria's hair from Lehzen's memorial scrapbook..

We exited down the Stone Stairs...

A simple (by royal standards!) but brutally beautiful light...

The next part of our tour took us around the King's State Apartments.

The king in question was King William III (r.1689-1702), who reigned jointly with his wife, Queen Mary II (r.1689-1694). The pair purchased what was then named Nottingham House in 1689 and commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to make extensive alterations.

The King's Grand Staircase was originally built by Wren in 1689 and had plain, panelled walls. It was remodelled in marble in 1692-3, then extensive alterations were carried out by George I in the early 18th century.

At the time the monarch's principal royal residence was Whitehall Palace, and it remained the official ceremonial and state centre of the court, but neither William (who suffered from chronic asthma, which disagreed with Whitehall's damp riverside location) nor Mary (who felt shut-in) wanted to live there.

The King's Gallery, and apparently it was here where William III died, having caught the chill that would lead to his death from pneumonia after falling from his horse.

These representations of court dress from a bygone era are scattered around...

The back view of the William III statue. I thought, 'My, what impressive ringlets he had!' Then realised that it was (of course) representative of a wig!😁

The dial over the fireplace is connected to a wind vane on the roof, and it's still in working order today. It allowed King William to see the direction the wind was blowing in, so he knew where his navy was likely to be heading.

Once hung with green velvet, King William would meet with his spies and plan military campaigns here.

The King's Drawing Room, set up for cards and dice.

Some fine paintings adorn the walls, but these rooms were too empty to be enthralling.

More of these outfits, and they look like they're made of paper. To be honest, I don't think it's a good use of the space.

Looking down onto the queues outside, and perhaps the palace needs to devise a better system- otherwise it negates the whole point of visitors having pre-booked, timed tickets.

The Cupola- or Cube- Room ceiling, which was completed in 1722, during the reign of King George I. This room was once the principal state room of the palace, which is why it was the most lavishly decorated.

The Cupola Room was undergoing refurbishment, so the focal point of the room- the stunning clock, which once contained a music box that played tunes by Handel, on it's octagonal plinth- had been removed.

Princess Victoria (later Queen Victoria) was christened here in 1819.

The lack of the clock in the Cupola Room was unexpected and such a disappointment, as it was something I really wanted to show the SuperDean.

Here's a PDF of it.

Ceiling of the King's Privy Chamber, and this was one of the favourite entertaining spaces of Queen Caroline, who took a keen interest in both Kensington Palace and Kensington Gardens. She was the consort to George II (r. 1727-1760) but after his death the palace never again served as the seat of the reigning monarch. In fact, after Queen Victoria left here, it became home to more minor members of royalty, and earned the nickname the "Aunt Heap!"

The Presence Chamber, and the monarch received foreign ambassadors, ministers and courtiers in here.

We exited and walked straight through to the Queen's State Apartments. This is the Queen's Drawing Room, and her bedroom is through the open door. This room was badly damaged by incendiary bombs and the panelling destroyed in 1940, during World War II, so the walls are now covered with modern paper.

Queen Mary died at Kensington Palace in 1694, probably in this room.

I've seen this bed before, in an exhibition about royal beds at Hampton Court Palace, where you could get right up close to it. This state bed is sometimes known as the "warming pan bed" following rumours that the young son of James II and Mary of Modena, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender") who was born in 1688 and who was the Catholic heir to the throne, was really a changeling- not the Queen's child but a surrogate smuggled into the palace in warming pan!

This rumour was ridiculous- it's been noted that royalty can neither be born nor die in privacy.

The Queen's Dining Room. Records show that William and Mary had an extremely generous daily allowance of food and drink.

The Queen's Closet. This is where Queen Anne (r.1702-1714) had her last meeting with her "favourite" Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, in April 1710. Their friendship ended after a disagreement and never recovered.

I actually preferred the Queen's Gallery to the King's Gallery. It had a certain kind of serenity about it, although furnishings were again rather sparse.

Once, tapestries hung on the wall, but as Queen Mary II died of smallpox they were all pulled down and burnt.

View of the gorgeous Sunken Garden.

A similar angle, taken further on. If you peer closely, you can see the top of the new Diana statue in front of the hedge at the back. More about that later...

Queen's Gallery fireplace.

Pots displayed up high, and I took this picture just because I liked them, and the way they were displayed!

The Queen's Staircase.

Over in the Orangery, our fourth and final exhibition was Royal Style in the Making. The Orangery was constructed in 1704-5, after being commissioned by Queen Anne.

These are toiles- the first interpretation of the design, often in calico, and used to ensure the fit and detailing is correct before cutting into the (often expensive!) final fabric.

Toile for the 1937 coronation gown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, consort to King George VI. The designer was Madame Handley-Seymour.

Here's what I came for, and it didn't disappoint! The magnificent wedding dress of Diana, Princess of Wales, showcasing its 25ft train (the longest in royal wedding history). Attention to detail is immense and complete- the back bodice, which would have been almost obscured by her veil, also has lace decorating it.

I'd actually seen so many photos of this dress that it felt familiar to me already... having said that, close-up you can see the embroidery, and the way it really sparkles. The colour of the dress was darker and more creamy than the ivory I expected, but that could be the effects of ageing (the dress, not me!😉) and the fact that the lighting was rather low.

The lace on the front bodice was presented to the Emanuels by the Royal School of Needlework, having been once given to them by Queen Mary (Diana's great-grandmother in-law.) It constituted the "something old" element of tradition; the "new" being the dress itself, the "borrowed" being the Spencer family tiara, and the "blue" being a discreet bow which was sewn into the dress.

I was trying to fathom how the train was held in place (I believe it was threaded through the dress, with the stays either hooked or tied in place underneath the front).

A depiction of the Emanuels' atelier. Having worked in fashion as a designer (in a previous incarnation), it's not something that was unfamiliar to me.

Diana's going away outfit, with the televised-on-a-loop image of the designer, David Sassoon chatting away.

I'd already seen this before, in a Bellville Sassoon exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum, some years ago. Both long-sleeved and short-sleeved jackets were created, in case the weather was inclement. The colour Diana requested was "cantaloupe."

The shoes are prototypes for the ones worn by Queen Elizabeth II when she got married. This whole section is displayed to show the intimate relationship between designers and their royal clients.

Evening dress worn by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Princess Margaret wore this Georgian style dress to a charity fancy dress ball in 1964. It was created by artist, stage and costume designer Oliver Messel, who was the uncle of her husband, Lord Snowdon (Anthony Armstrong-Jones).

The beautiful Sunken Garden.

Bronze statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, by Ian Rank-Broadley, unveiled by her sons recently, on what would have been her 60th birthday.

I know it's difficult to create a sensitive facial expression in bronze, and I know that they're trying to represent Diana's good work and her love of children, but I don't like the finished piece.

Did her boys really like this statue? Good if they did, but I find it a tad hard to believe- here she looks like sports presenter, David Coleman! Perhaps it referenced a side of her that only those close to her knew about.

Sinewy-hipped and frumpy-shoed? I don't think it's a flattering representation.

The kid at the back is making a beseeching gesture. Hmm. Diana apparently didn't like the way some cultures were negatively represented, so I'm not sure including this is a good idea.

If it had been in marble, just of her and with a touch of the glamour she was famous for- plus her lovely smile- then maybe it would have been better.

Walking back through the arbour which surrounds the Sunken Garden...

We'll wrap up this KP (as Diana used to nickname it) visit with this statue of Queen Victoria (r.1837-1901).

This was designed in 1893 by Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise (1848-1939), who was one of only a few women sculptors of the 19th century, and depicts Victoria at the time of her accession.

A Dress for Diana, by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, was on sale at the palace. But I've owned it for years, so took another look at it and put together a review, link here:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-dress-for-diana-by-david-emanuel-and.html?m=0