Royal Interiors

The new white carpet at Picture Gallery is 40m long, with wild roses and stylised flowers.

I have a book published when our present Queen was Princess Elizabeth Heir Presumptive, it is about Clarence House and has photographs of the newly refurbished rooms for the young couple and their family. Its called Clarence House and was by Christopher Hussey.It was published by Country Life in 1949.

It also gives a full and interesting history of the house and its occupants. There is a plan of the house and its buildings from 1792 by Sir John Soane and was part of a survey of St. James's Palace.


I don't know if anyone else knows of this book?

David L. Newell, London

That above old photo of the Portrait Gallery (1914) shows that it has a beautiful intricate parquet wood floor!  Any idea why they would now prefer the room completely carpeted rather than show off those stunning floor?

Wear and tear on a wooden floor no doubt. carpets can be replaced.

I don't think the Queen or the Prince would worry about wear on the wood floor.

 I would imagine that there are capets to make the room more quiet and the floor more comfortable to stand on.

Nikola, is the photo of the Queen's Private Sitting Room the room with the large curved bay?

Nikola, is the photo of the Queen's Private Sitting Room the room with the large curved bay?

Yes it is!
This Room is today the Queen's Private Sitting Room at Buckingham palace. This Room has a bow windows in the north side of Buckingham palace.

The Windows of The Queen's Private Sitting Room at Buckingham palace.

The Queen's Private Sitting Room at Buckingham palace during reign of the Queen Victoria, when this room was used as "The Queen Victoria Sitting Room":

I have a book published when our present Queen was Princess Elizabeth Heir Presumptive, it is about Clarence House and has photographs of the newly refurbished rooms for the young couple and their family. Its called Clarence House and was by Christopher Hussey.It was published by Country Life in 1949.

It also gives a full and interesting history of the house and its occupants. There is a plan of the house and its buildings from 1792 by Sir John Soane and was part of a survey of St. James's Palace.


I don't know if anyone else knows of this book?

David L. Newell, London

Can you scean that's plans of Clarence House and photos for us?
It's will be very nice to see them!

Hi,

Thank you, Nikola, for all the great photos!

I wonder where all those wonderful pictures in Queen Victoria's Sitting Room ar now?  They should be exibited in The Queen's Galley;  they look very interesting and I wonder who they all are?  Interesting!

Larry

Queen's Private Sitting Room

Has anyone else noticed the different detail over the doors and cornice line between the QV era photos and the QEII era photos of the Queen's Private Sitting Room?  Any insight as to why this may have been done.  I rather prefer the QV era detail as the QEII looks to me as though it has been added. 

You would be surprised how much they care about wear and tear. The first time I went to Buckingham Palace they still had electric fires from the 1940's in the fire places. The wiring on most of the lamps was ancient and GPO telephones were still in use.

You would be surprised how much they care about wear and tear. The first time I went to Buckingham Palace they still had electric fires from the 1940's in the fire places. The wiring on most of the lamps was ancient and GPO telephones were still in use.

I'm not sure I get any connection between wear and tear and the ancient lamp wiring and antique telephones. 

I would suspect that the Royals keep the old things around because they are ingrained with tradition and rarely like to change anything.

I assume the GPO phones were the rotary dial type?

Even the White House  in the US goes through stages of being very out of date.  The current staff that arrived this January could not believe how yesterday the various communication, computer, Email and phone systems the Bush Admin were using.