In the end, I ended up having a friend to come with me - Joel has a Historic Palaces pass and hadn't been yet, so offered to come with me! So nice to have a friend to come with for a change. We met just after opening time, and by the time I arrived, the queue had disappeared!
We first visited the Queen's State Apartments. These were pretty cool - apartments created for Mary II. They told the story of the Stuart dynasty (which is rather tragic, she had many many pregnancies and only one child, who then died age eleven) and showed the apartments in which she used to spend her time. They have the Queen's bedroom set up, but it was the room next door that she actually died in!
Diana: Her Fashion Story, was next, and the thing I was looking forward to the most! It was a smallish exhibition, telling a story of Diana's life through various different outfits. The thing that blew me away (other than the beautiful dresses, of course), was the amount of thought that went into all her dresses. Especially for state events and while she was Princess, so much thought went into every outfit. One dress was embellished with sequins in the shape of birds, the national emblem of Saudi Arabia, for a state visit there. It was also long sleeved and high necked to cater for their sensitivities. Another gorgeous dress was designed specifically in NOT blue and red, because the country of that particular state visit had just lost a football match to another country with a blue and red sports kit. So thoughtful.
Other outfits were designed based on movies which Diana liked (she was very much into movies), or tailored to specific occasions. She was very influential (magazines featuring her on the cover sold 40% more than other issues), and was able to use that influence to change peoples ideas of fashion, promote British designers, and still look fabulous. Most of my pictures are from that exhibition.
Next we went upstairs to the final two exhibits - Victoria Revealed and Enlightened Princesses. Victoria Revealed was really interesting: it turns out her story was much more tumultuous than many people gave credit for. For example, I didn't know that she was actually really happy, loving and devoted to her family until Albert died. After that, she was basically lost. Such a sad story. She also had a very protected lifestyle and upbringing, with a very regimented education from the age of 3! Not the right education system, not at all.
Enlightened Princess was about Caroline, Augusta and Charlotte and how they influenced and shaped the royal court. They were big into education, inoculated their children against smallpox, cultivated relationships with other countries, and generally were really influential and cool. We later learned that the Serpentine (the large pond in the middle of Hyde Park) was actually built for Caroline!
The King's State Apartments was the last part, and the grandest. I laughed at the painted statues on the wall, but it turns out that George II was just super cheap and didn't want to actually buy statues! It turns out he painter he hired wasn't that great either, because he was cheap... There are some serious funny anatomical mistakes on ceilings! It was filled with more fancy drapery, grander furniture, and actually had painted ceilings (the only exhibition which did). I suppose he gets the best, as the King.
I certainly feel like I learnt a lot, it was very cool!
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