Royalty in 1900 London: Kensington Palace

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Imperial London, by Arthur H. Beavan, first published in 1901, had the following to say about Kensington Palace:

Until Queen Victoria, in her desire to gratify the wishes of her people, directed that the state rooms at Kensington Palace should be carefully restored and opened to the public, few people had been inside the plain brick building so conspicuous from the Broad Walk. Still fewer, perhaps, had ever given a thought to the important part it has played in history.

King William and Queen Mary, Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark, George I and George II lived here, and all but the first George died within its walls.

During these four reigns, it was, like St. James', the scene of the ceaseless intrigues that influenced English policy; and up its Great Staircase have passed at one time or another for nearly two hundred years, all the men of note whose names are to the historian household words - Schomberg, Godolphin, Marlborough, Harley, Bolingbroke, St. John, Walpole, Willliam Pitt, Addison, Steele, Swift, and Prior. These are the shadowy associations of the Palace.

But the past was linked to 1900 by the circumstance that the Duchess of Teck resided within its walls, that her daughter, the Duchess of York, was born there, and that it was now the residence of Princess Louise and the Duke of Argyll.

But its chief interest, of course, lies in the fact that it was there Queen Victoria first saw the light of day, and eighteen years afterwards, held the first Council of her long reign, in the so-called Council chamber, a long low-pitched room, its ceiling supported by pillars decorated in simple white and gold, and with no trace of dignity or splendour about it.

The state rooms are in the Denmark wing, and from the spacious hall, ascending the Great Staircase, whose walls are panelled to the ceiling, one enters the old Ball-room, Long and narrow, dismantled of its finery, and dreary, yet imposing enough, no doubt, in the days of its youth.

In the centre of Kensington Palace is the famous Cube-room, no less than forty feet in height, with the Star of the Garter in the middle of its painted ceiling. Niches all round the room hold gilded statues of mythological deities, and the mantelpiece by Rysbraek represents a Roman marriage.

In the rear of this curious apartment is the Presence Chamber; then come respectively the King's and the Queen's galleries (the former once hung with tapestry), and the King's Great Drawing-room, above whose oak dado a deal panelling reaches to the ceiling, on which is painted an incident in the life of Jupiter.

For some reason, the one spot of supreme interest in the Palace, is only accessible by a special order from the Lord Chamberlain's office.

It is a somewhat low and plain room, bare of all furniture, with three windows overlooking the Broad Walk; but a gilt tablet records the great event that took place there eighty-two years ago!

There are other rooms to be seen, however, associated with the late Queen; the bed-chamber, in which her slumbers were rudely disturbed when Lord Melbourne and the Primate of All England, brought tidings of the death of William I .- a lofty room and old-fashioned, with an ugly fire-place and perfectly plain ceiling; and, close by, her nursery (which is also the birthplace of the Duchess of Cornwall and York), with iron bars across the windows.

Outside the Palace on the north, is Queen Anne's Banqueting House, a fine example of Sir Christopher Wren's brickwork. It was originally fitted up as a ball-room, music-room and drawing-room, but when the Court left Kensington after George II's death, it was converted into an orangery and forcing-house.

It has now been brought back to somewhat of its earlier condition, and its principal feature, the delicate and graceful carving of the cornices, replaced and restored. In the reign of Queen Anne, the Palace stood in the midst of orchards and pleasure-gardens, between the Uxbridge and Kensington roads.

(In 1900 Kensington Palace became the subject of a curious contention between the borough of Kensington and the newly-formed City of Westminster as to which should belong the honour of including it within its borders; the result of a formal inquiry into the matter being that the Old Court Suburb, Palace and gardens were to belong thenceforth to Kensington.)

After her time the grounds were gradually thrown open to the public; at first on Saturdays only, then in the spring and summer, and, finally, all the year round. Commonplace in winter when the trees are bare, the red brick of the building tones well with the abundant foliage of leafy June, and at a distance it is quite picturesque. The southern wing built by Christopher Wren - where the Princess Louise and the Duke of Argyll reside, is approached by a long corridor from the principal entrance on the "green," facing the house where Thackeray died.

Groups of swords, deers' heads and other trophies of the chase adorn the walls of this corridor, at the end of which is the library, lofty, and with narrow windows reaching down to the ground and communicating with a narrow strip of lawn.

With its well-lined book-shelves and hospitable fire-place, it is a particularly comfortable room, meant for work and not for show, and here the Duke of Argyll is generally to be found. One would expect the apartments of the Princess Louise to be artistically arranged, and so they are. Wall-papers, carpets, hangings, etc., have all been selected with an eye to "tone."

There are some beautiful pieces of sculpture, but pictures predominate, many being from her own brush; and her sketches of the picturesque scenery of Canada reveal the eye and the touch of the true artist. The drawing-rooms, en suite, are unusually lofty, and the two floors above the library level are occupied by bedrooms, whose outlook through the trees is very cheerful.

It is a pleasant home, the least grandiose of any of the London residences of the late Queen Victoria's family, Marlborough House and Clarence House being, as we shall presently see, on a different scale.

Next: Royalty in 1900 London: Marlborough House