 |
| The front of Kensington Palace |
We walked around the side of the building to get in, when we first entered it was a little cafe type thing and then we walked through the gift shop to get up to the counter to pay. I knew that a couple of the girls were a little weary about going in, to be fair it was $65 dollars and I could understand why someone wouldn't want to pay that much. I told them it was okay and that we didn't have to go in. I tried to smile and pretend I wasn't to heartbroken but on the inside I was soooo crushed. Not to long after I said we didn't have to go in, Lorien said, "well Shelby and I will go in then because if we don't she will be heartbroken." OH MY GOD SHE WAS RIGHT. But I stayed calm and said, "it was really okay." Soon enough the other girls agreed and we all went on our way. I was ecstatic. When we walked into the first room, it was filled with paintings and a huge table. It was the table that Queen Victoria had held her first privy council meeting. There was a sign on the table that said she was strong, polite and held her own when it came to the members.She was a natural. She is the longest reigning monarch in Great Britain and the longest reigning female monarch in the world. It is because of this that we hear so much about her and her name is used in conjunction with so many things, for example, Victorian decor, Victorian ways of morality, Victorian dress, etc. Being one of the most famous and arguably the most culturally influential of all the monarchs of the British or any empire, Queen Victoria and the great love of her life, Prince Albert.
 |
| Table where she had her first Privy Council Meeting! |
 |
| Brittany and the coats we could try on!
The next room we went into was my absolute favourite. It was all about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's Love Story. If you aren't familiar with it I will share a little bit about them... (partially because I love their story so much and partially because I think you might too.) Victoria met Albert when she was 16, before she was Queen. They were cousins and he was sent there to "woo" her. The first time they met, she really was taken by him and I am fairly certain for him it was love at first site. Him and his brother spent sometime there getting to know young Victoria. After he left, they sent letter back and forth for 2 years, even after Victoria had been crowned Queen. She was being pushed to be married to secure her crown. Because she was already Queen, she had to propose to which ever suitor she felt was right. Nearly 3 years after they first met, Albert came back to Kensington Palace for a second time in 1839, only this time he didn't leave. Victoria proposed and they were married on February 10th 1840. This was the first wedding on a reigning Queen since the 1500's I believe. There are copies of her personal journal and letters from Albert, and they are some of the sweetest love letters I have ever read. He continued to write her letters even after they were married. Although like any marriage it wasn't perfect, they continued to love and support each other up until 1861 when Prince Albert died tragically. Throughout this time, they had 9 children and always worked together making them known as as being one of the most influential monarchs known to date. Queen Victoria was so heartbroken it took years for her to "recover". Although no one really believes she did fully recover from losing Albert. But, how could she have.... She kept all of his rooms as a shrine and wouldn't allow anyone in any of them. She went from being one of the Queens to make the most public appearances to making hardly any, she became known as the Widow of Windsor as she didn't make a public appearance until 3 years after his death. They were only married and ruled together for 21 years, Victoria ruled by her lonesome for another 40 years until her death in 1901. She wore black everyday for the rest of her reign which overall lasted almost 61 years. When Victoria died in January, one of Albert's dressing gowns was placed beside her in the coffin as well as a plaster cast of his hand. She was buried in her wedding veil.
I really hope I did a good enough job talking about their love story and I hope you can see why I love it so much. There was an entire room dedicated to their love. Filled with pictures, letters, little scripts on the walls and some furniture that was theirs.
 
Seeing all these wonderful scripts and letters thoroughly made me believe in soul mates. I think then it was so common to have to marry someone just because you were told to do so. That there was partnership and maybe friendship but I do believe that these two have one of the greatest love stories of all time. How lucky for them, if only it could have lasted longer than 21 years.
"My life as a happy one is ended, the world is gone for me."
We then continued into her childhood bedroom which was also very very cool to see! There were some of her original toys in there as well. Did you know that when Victoria was born she was 5th in line to get the crown. Growing up she was so smothered and sheltered by her mother that she didn't go down a flight of stairs alone until she was Queen? She had someone hold her hand every time.
We continued on to see the a replica of the King and Queens Apartments. The Kings were almost double the size of the Queens! They were also much more extravagant and colourful, where as the Queens were much more plain. And the doors were huge.
The Kings Apartments consisted of, The Presence Chamber, The King's Staircase, The Privy Chamber, The Cupola Room, The Drawing Room and The King's Gallery. The Kings Stair Case was wide and lined with thick green carpet, everything about the staircase was huge, the railings, the steps and the amount of time it took you to get to the top. The King's Gallery was a wide room but it was very very long. It had a fireplace in it with huge windows and paintings on the wall. With the most extravagant ceiling. However nothing came close to the Cupola Room. It was the most beautiful room in the entire palace. There was not a square inch that was bare.
 
It was so beautiful I can't even explain it! Thankfully we got a few pictures so you can see! The big object in the middle of the room is a handmade clock and music box from 1743.
We headed to the Queens Apartments next, we saw, The Queens Staircase, The Queens Gallery, The Queens Closet, The Eating Room and The Queens Bedroom.The Queens Staircase was much simpler, it wasn't a round about idea like the Kings, it was straight to the top and much narrower, it was lined with thin red carpet. Although the Queens Gallery was less extravagant as the Kings, it was beautiful none the less, lined with paintings on wood panelled walls. There were all of these paper birds hanging from the ceiling, it made a gallery much more feminine. You could tell right away that it was for a women. There was a fireplace at the far end on the side wall and it had a bunch of china and vases rested on the mantel. They were all from Queen Mary and had tulips all over them.
We then headed into a room filled with more modern things, including dressed worn by Princess Diana. It was filled with all sorts of dresses, all from the 80's and 90's. Along with Princess Di's dresses there were also some dresses worn by other Queens. They were TINY! Like 5 foot nothing, the dresses were so small and the amount of detail that went into the beading on some of them was magnificent.
 
The saddest room in the entire Palace was undoubtedly this one:
This room was filled with little chairs and each of them had a number on them. They were all Queen Anne's Little Hopes, which is what the little sign reads if you can't see it very well. It was so sad to see all of those children that were lost. For 16 years she continued to have miscarriages, one set of stillborn twins as well as many other stillborn infants, she had 17 different pregnancies. She gave birth to 5 live children, 4 of which died before the age of 2. She had one son who lived until his 11th birthday, Prince William had literally danced himself to death at his birthday party. He died 6 days after on July 30th. It was very very sad to see all of this heartbreak in one room.
This was one of the chairs in Prince Williams bedroom. He had a beautifully decorated room with a large canopy.
Outside of the palace was just as beautiful as the inside! There was tons of trees, birds everywhere and a huge pond in the middle of the green space. There were also a lot of statues including the Peter Pan statue which is what Lorien was so excited to see! We walked through the gardens and looked around at all of the other statues on our way to this particular one. In case you didn't know, not only did Queen Victoria liver her as a child, but Princess Diana also resided her. There is a park for children that was built on the grounds in her memory.
 
I hope you enjoyed reading all about Kensington Palace because honestly, I have never enjoyed writing a blog more than this particular one. It truly was a dream come true and by far the best day of my life.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for part 4!
xo
|
I
Comments
Post a Comment