Royal London Sampler by Pavilion Books

CONTENTS Royal Palaces 2 Palace of Westminster 9 Westminster Abbey 12 Coronations 14 St Paul’s Cathedral 16 Tower of London 18 Royal Ceremonials 20 Royal Regiments 24 Royal Proclamations 26 Victoria & Albert’s London 28 Royal Streets & Statues 30 Royal Parks 32 Royal Greenwich 36 Royal Botanic Gardens & Palace, Kew 38 Hampton Court Palace 40 Windsor Castle 42 Places to Visit 44 Acknowledgements 45 BELOW: The

royal barge carries Queen Elizabeth II and members of the Royal Family past the Palace of Westminster during her Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in June 2012.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Publication in this form © Pitkin Publishing 2019, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Ltd. Written by Gill Knappett (www.knappett. co.uk). The moral right of the author has been asserted. Images by kind permission of: PA Images: front cover, 1, 3 top, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13 right, 14, 15, 18 left, 21 main, 21 inset, 22, 23 bottom, 25, 27 left, 27 right, 29 top, 30, 34, 35, 37 right, 39 top, 41 right, 42, 43 top, 43 bottom. Alamy: 2, 6, 7, 9, 16–17, 18–19, 20, 23 top, 31 bottom, 33, 36, 41 left. Getty: 12–13, 19 right, 32, 37 left, 45, back cover. National Archives: 17 inset. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher and the copyright holders. A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library. Available by mail order. See our website www.pavilionbooks.com for our full range of titles or contact us for a copy of our brochure. Pitkin Publishing, Pavilion Books Company Limited, 43 Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3HZ, UK Sales and enquiries: +44 (0)20 7462 1500 sales@pavilionbooks.com Printed in Turkey ISBN 978-1-84165-830-8 1/19

RoyalLondon_COVER_SELECT.indd 2

19/09/2018 16:36

ROYAL LONDON

ondon has a charm that draws visitors from home and abroad who are looking to explore what England’s capital city has to offer. The fact that for hundreds of years Britain has had a Royal Family is part of that charm, and the unique history of our monarchy forms the basis of Royal London. From palaces and parks to pomp and ceremony, from streets with royal connections to statues commemorating past sovereigns and their consorts, much of today’s royal London is readily available to any visitor who wishes to seek it out. But it is fascinating, too, to reflect on how parts of London came about, thanks to those monarchs who have lived, loved, lost and left a royal footprint. Follow in the footsteps of royalty past and present on this journey through England’s capital and beyond to Kew, Hampton Court and Windsor. Gill Knappett

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 1

19/09/2018 16:37

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

dward the Confessor’s ‘west minster’ (as opposed to the ‘east minster’, St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London) was consecrated on 28 December 1065, just days before he died. Edward – the only English monarch to be canonised – is enshrined here. His was to be the first of a long tradition of royal burials and memorials at the abbey: Elizabeth I and her half-sister, Mary I, share a tomb, although only Elizabeth’s effigy, carved in white marble, is seen; a more elaborate, canopied resting place belongs to her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Another tradition began on Christmas Day 1066, when William I, victorious at the Battle of Hastings, was crowned here. Westminster Abbey has been the site for coronations of English monarchs ever since. In 1245 Henry III began rebuilding the abbey, and the English Gothic building that stands today remains much as he intended, its style influenced by the opulent French cathedrals he favoured. The nave alone – the highest in England – took 150 years to complete. Westminster Abbey remains a place of regular worship and has been the venue for several royal weddings, amongst them Prince Albert (later George VI) to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and both their daughters: Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) in 1947 and Princess Margaret in 1960. More recently, the Queen’s grandson Prince William married Catherine Middleton here in 2011.

BELOW: Westminster

Abbey at night. Within its walls are some of the finest examples of medieval architecture in London.

ROYAL PECULIARS Westminster Abbey is known as a Royal Peculiar, which means it falls under the jurisdiction of the monarch rather than a bishop, a concept that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. Other Royal Peculiars in central London are: the Chapel Royal and Queen’s Chapel in St James’s Palace; the Chapels of St John the Evangelist and St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London; the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, a private chapel governed by the Duchy of Lancaster and situated next to the Savoy Hotel in the Strand; the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster; and the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, founded in 1147 by Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen, as a church and hospital next to the Tower of London.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 12

12/09/2018 10:12

DID YOU KNOW? The correct title of Westminster Abbey is the Collegiate Church of St Peter.

RIGHT: Prince

William and his bride, Catherine Middleton, make their way past the quire stalls following their wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 13

19/09/2018 16:39

CORONATIONS

oronations have been central to the story of Westminster Abbey since 1066. That first coronation ceremony was memorable … but not necessarily for the right reasons. Shouts of acclaim from William the Conqueror’s English guests were misinterpreted by the French-speaking guards as a protest, and they set fire to nearby houses in retaliation. Although the ceremony continued, panicked guests left the abbey, the clergy were terrified and King William ‘was trembling violently’. The Coronation Chair has formed part of the ceremony since it was first used by Edward II in 1308. It was made on the order of his father, LEFT: Spectators

in grandstands watch as King George V and Queen Mary, in the Gold State Coach, approach Westminster Abbey for His Majesty’s Coronation, 22 June 1911. More than 50 such grandstands were erected along the processional route.

RIGHT: Queen

Elizabeth II at her Coronation in Westminster Abbey, 2 June 1953. As for her wedding gown six years earlier, the Queen’s Coronation dress, embroidered with the emblems of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, was the work of British fashion designer Norman Hartnell.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 14

19/09/2018 16:39

Edward I, to enclose the Stone of Scone, DID YOU KNOW? claimed by the latter in 1296 after his invasion of Scotland. Many Scottish kings had been At George IV’s coronation in 1821, the crowned on the legendary Stone of Scone, which fashion-loving monarch was dressed in was finally returned to Scotland in 1996. flamboyant garb, including a heavily In nearly 1,000 years of history at embroidered 27-foot (8-metre) train and Westminster Abbey there have been three newly commissioned crown bearing over sovereigns who were never crowned: Edward V 12,000 diamonds; in the heat of the July who became king at the age of 12 in 1483 but day, it is said he needed 19 handkerchiefs to disappeared, most likely murdered; Lady Jane mop his brow. Meanwhile, his estranged Grey who was deposed after just nine days as wife, Caroline of Brunswick, was not queen in 1553; and Edward VIII who abdicated admitted to the abbey and was heard in December 1936, five months before his hammering on the door. planned coronation. Instead his brother, George VI, was crowned at the coronation ceremony on 12 May 1937. However, what many people today recall is 2 June 1953, his daughter Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation day. It was the first time such an event had been televised, and many families purchased their first television set for the occasion. Following months of preparation, Queen Elizabeth II, dressed in a gown by Norman Hartnell and accompanied by six maids of honour, took centre stage. Under the guidance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, she undertook six symbolic stages of historic ritual: the Recognition, during which, having arrived in the coronation ‘theatre’ she was presented to the congregation; the Oath, a promise to govern with justice and mercy, and to maintain the Protestant religion; the Consecration, the most solemn part of the service, for which the Queen was hidden from view and dressed in a simple white robe; next the Investiture with the presentation of the Coronation Regalia – Spurs and the Jewelled Sword of Offering, the Armills, the Royal Robe with the Stole Royal, the Orb, Rings and two Sceptres, followed by the crowning with the Crown of St Edward; and the Enthronement, when the newly crowned monarch ascended the throne for the first time to receive the Homage, first from the Archbishop of Canterbury, then her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, before the rest of the clergy and peers vowed their loyalty. 15

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 15

12/09/2018 10:12

Royal Ceremonials CHANGING THE GUARD

ne of Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most-watched ceremonies is Changing the Guard, more properly known as the Guard Mounting, which takes place at Buckingham Palace. The colourful 45-minute ceremony, to the accompaniment of a military band, is carried out by soldiers of the Foot Guards who have protected the monarch and royal palaces since 1660. At the given time the Old Guard, dressed in traditional red tunics and bearskin hats, goes off duty and hands over to the New Guard from the nearby Wellington Barracks. LEFT: A

military band marches past the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace as part of the Changing the Guard ceremony.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 20

12/09/2018 10:13

TROOPING THE COLOUR

ince 1748 the sovereignâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s official birthday has been celebrated in the summer months, with the hope of fine weather, and today is always held in June. The Birthday Parade, or Trooping the Colour, is an elaborate pageant with its roots in the military tradition of parading (trooping) the flags (colours) of a battalion so that its soldiers could easily recognise them on the battlefield. Since 1987 the Queen has attended the Trooping the Colour ceremony in a carriage, but prior to that she rode her own horse, seated side-saddle and dressed in uniform. The procession starts at Buckingham Palace and Her Majesty is escorted by the mounted Household Cavalry down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, where over 1,400 soldiers, accompanied by the massed military bands of the Household Division, are on parade. Here the Queen receives the royal salute and inspects her troops. Each year one of five regiments of the Foot Guards is chosen to parade their regimental colours. The Foot Guards, Household Cavalry and the Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery all parade past the Queen before she returns to Buckingham Palace, where she and other members of the Royal Family step out onto the balcony to see a fly-past by the Royal Air Force.

BELOW: King

George V and his cousin Prince Arthur of Connaught ride to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1912. Over 100 years later (inset), his granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II attends the ceremony with the Duke of Edinburgh in 2017.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 21

12/09/2018 10:13

ROYAL STREETS & STATUES

any parts of London have royal connections, including streets and establishments named after royalty, and areas of the capital adorned with royal statues. Amongst them is The Mall, leading from Buckingham Palace to Admiralty Arch. The Mall, like the nearby Pall Mall, takes its name from the game of paille maille, similar to croquet and popular during the reign of Charles II. Along The Mall are memorials to Queen Elizabeth II’s parents: George VI’s statue was erected in 1955 and alongside it, flanked by bronze depictions of scenes from the Second World War, stands his wife. At the unveiling ceremony in 2009, Prince Charles said, ‘At long last my grandparents are reunited in this joint symbol, which in particular reminds us of all they stood for and meant to so many during the darkest days this country has ever faced.’ Now headquarters of The Commonwealth of Nations, the 18thcentury Marlborough House was built on land once used as a pheasantry for St James’s Palace. There are memorials to two dowager queens who resided here after they were widowed: Queen Mary, who lived here from 1936; and Queen Alexandra, whose grand statue, unveiled in 1932, seven years after her death, symbolises her virtues of Faith, Hope and Love. Kings Road, Chelsea was laid in the 17th century for the monarch to travel between Whitehall Palace and Hampton Court, and later Kew, to avoid London’s congested streets. Other than royalty, those with a copper token stamped ‘The King’s Private Roads’ were also permitted to use it. LEFT: Queen

Elizabeth II rides along The Mall from Buckingham Palace in the Gold State Coach on her way to St Paul’s Cathedral for a service of thanksgiving to celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 2002.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 30

12/09/2018 10:13

DID YOU KNOW? What is now the Royal London Hospital is where Edward VII had a life-saving appendectomy just days before he was due to be crowned in June 1902. As a result the ceremony was delayed until August … but much commemorative china had already been manufactured so bears the wrong date.

ABOVE RIGHT: Grinling

Gibbons’ gilded statue of Charles II dressed as a Roman Emperor stands in Figure Court at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

BELOW: This

memorial by sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert to Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII, is set into a garden wall at Marlborough House.

A statue of Charles II stands in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, for it was he who commissioned the building of this retirement home for soldiers in the 17th century. It still serves that purpose to this day and the ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ are a familiar sight in London in their traditional scarlet uniform when representing the hospital at special events and parades. Other hospitals with royal connections include the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel, founded as the London Infirmary and renamed in 1990 when Queen Elizabeth II visited to commemorate its 250th anniversary. At the hospital is a statue of Queen Alexandra ‘who in 1900 introduced to England the Finsen Light Cure for lupus’. King’s College Hospital was established in 1840 as a training hospital for the university given royal charter by George IV in 1829; in 1909 the hospital moved to its current location in Denmark Hill, named for Queen Anne’s consort, George of Denmark. Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was born at King’s College Hospital in 1947. Several London theatres owe their names to royalty, including the West End’s Prince Edward Theatre, built in 1930 and named after the future King Edward VIII. The Old Vic – its popular name since the 19th century – in south-east London was originally the Royal Coburg Theatre, its patron being Prince Leopold of Coburg, son-in-law of George IV. Its name changed to the Royal Victoria Theatre in 1833 in honour of the future queen, and it became a popular venue for Victorian music-hall entertainment. 31

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 31

12/09/2018 10:13

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS & PALACE, KEW

ust eight miles from central London is Kew, popular in royal circles in medieval times because of its proximity to Richmond where a royal manor was established, and where, in 1501, Richmond Palace was built. Kewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Royal Botanic Gardens were once private gardens belonging to Frederick, Prince of Wales, heir to George II. Frederick and his wife, Princess Augusta, lived in the White House in the grounds from 1731, and he introduced the plants and trees that formed the basis for the now world-renowned collection. When Frederick died in 1751, nine years before his father, his widow continued to work on landscaping and introducing more species of plants, today the most diverse collection in the world.

COMMEMORATING THE PRINCESS OF WALES Princess Augustaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work at Kew was commemorated by one of her successors to the title Princess of Wales when Princess Diana opened the Princess of Wales Conservatory in 1987. Exotic plants from ten different climate zones are grown in the conservatory.

BELOW: The

Palm House at Kew, constructed in 1844 to house tropical plants brought back to the UK by Victorian explorers.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 38

12/09/2018 10:13

ABOVE: Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in 2004, when she unveiled a plaque commemorating it as a World Heritage Site.

Kew Palace, originally known as the Dutch Houses, has stood in the grounds at Kew since it was built in 1631 for a Flemish merchant. It was leased to George II and Queen Caroline as a country retreat, and their grandson, George III, later purchased the property. George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte, used it as a royal nursery for their 15 children. After Queen Charlotte’s death in 1818 Kew Palace stood empty until the Royal Botanic Gardens acquired it in 1896. It opened to the public, by permission of Queen Victoria, in 1899. Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, now also open to the public, was built in 1770 as a royal ‘rustic retreat’, and overlooked a menagerie where kangaroos were kept, some of the first in Britain. In 1818 the cottage was the venue for celebrations following the double wedding at Kew Palace of George III’s sons, William, Duke of Clarence (later William IV) and Edward, Duke of Kent. When their elder brother, George IV, died in 1830, without a legitimate child surviving to succeed him, an heir of William IV was expected to eventually take the throne. However, none of William’s legitimate children survived him either and it was Edward, Duke of Kent’s only child, Victoria, who became the next monarch.

RIGHT: Kew

Palace. Today visitors can see Queen Charlotte’s bedroom, which remains, at her granddaughter Queen Victoria’s request, as it was when her grandmother lived there.

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 39

12/09/2018 10:13

PLACES TO VISIT Many of the places referred to in Royal London are open to visitors. Please refer to their websites for details of opening days and times.

Banqueting House www.hrp.org.uk

Museum of London www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Royal Hospital Chelsea www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk

Buckingham Palace www.royalcollection.org.uk

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich www.rmg.co.uk

Royal London Hospital Museum www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/ the-royal-london-hospitalmuseum-and-archives

Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace www.royal.uk/chapelroyal Chapels of St John the Evangelist and St Peter ad Vincula www.thechapelsroyalhmtower oflondon.org.uk Clarence House www.royalcollection.org.uk

Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich www.ornc.org The Old Vic www.oldvictheatre.com Palace of Westminster/ Houses of Parliament www.parliament.uk

Hampton Court Palace www.hrp.org.uk

Prince Edward Theatre www.princeedwardtheatre. co.uk

Horse Guards Parade changing-guard.com

Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy royalchapelsavoy.org

Jewel Tower, Westminster www.english-heritage.org.uk

The Queen’s Gallery www.royalcollection.org.uk

Kensington Palace www.hrp.org.uk

The Queen’s House, Greenwich www.rmg.co.uk

Kew Palace www.hrp.org.uk

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew www.kew.org

Marlborough House thecommonwealth.org/ marlborough-house

The Royal Exchange www.theroyalexchange.co.uk

The Royal Mews www.royalcollection.org.uk Royal Observatory, Greenwich www.rmg.co.uk The Royal Parks www.royalparks.org.uk Somerset House www.somersethouse.org.uk St Paul’s Cathedral www.stpauls.co.uk Tower of London www.hrp.org.uk Victoria & Albert Museum www.vam.ac.uk Westminster Abbey www.westminster-abbey.org Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel www.royalcollection.org.uk

RoyalLondon_LAYOUT-proofread.indd 44

12/09/2018 10:14

royal barge carries Queen Elizabeth II and members of the Royal Family past the Palace of Westminster during her Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in June 2012.

RoyalLondon_COVER_SELECT.indd 2

19/09/2018 16:36

ROYAL LONDON

Explore the palaces, parks and pageantry that make Royal London so spectacular Includes Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Changing the Guard, Trooping the Colour, Horse Guards Parade, St James’s Park, Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, Royal Greenwich, Kew Gardens, Hampton Court and Windsor Castle.

UK £6.00

www.pavilionbooks.com

RoyalLondon_COVER_SELECT.indd 1

12/09/2018 10:16