What's in this Area

[Almedingen]

On the attached floor plan, what is in area 57 and all of the little rooms surrounding it?  Was this the main entrance to the palace?  What do these rooms look like?  What are the staircases (62) like and who used them?  Do you have any pictures of this area?

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/imperialmap.html

[nerdycool]

I'm not totally sure, but I think that was the Imperial entrance...since they did live in that wing. I imagine the rooms off to the side are coat rooms or guard points. The stairs would maybe be used by the children and the staff. But then again, I'm just speculating, so there could be other possibilities

[La_Mashka]

All those little rooms are gone now.  

Thats where the entrance is located, and where you pay for your ticket and put on the special slippers you must put on inside all palaces.

There is also a very small stand with some books and postcards.

[jfkhaos]

I would agree with the coat rooms....but perhaps there were some "refreshing rooms" (were they referred to as powder rooms back then?) where guests could freshen up before their presentation to the Imperial Family......

[londo954]

I believe there was a cloak room for Alexandra's furs and a room for hot water for tea also

[La_Mashka]

Something else


This entrance was used by the Imperial Family.

The inside stairs you refer to are only about 8 steps

[amy]

I'm sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but my camera sort of wonked out during my trip to St. Petersburg.  

Photo of the inside staircase leading to the hallway on the first floor (ID 57)

[amy]

A really bad picture of the staircase leading to the second floor (ID 62). I haven't a clue whether these stairs are original though. Does anyone know the answer?

[Douglas]

Yes, the stairway in the photo does appear to be original.

Douglas

[pinklady]

Amy, I am very excited by your pictures.
Do you have any more???

[nigbil]

This is certainly not the main entrance to the Palace, which is through the colonnaded portico between the two wings.

I suspect, though I have no evidence for it, that most people attending an audience with either the Tsar or the Empress, would enter through the main entrance and then be escorted through the rooms in the centre of the palace to emerge, on the ground plan, in the Small Library (2). If they were having an audience with the Empress, it would probably take place in her Formal Reception Room (1) or the Maple Room (70).
If the audience was with the Tsar, they would have gone from (2) into (1) then (69) then into the  (68) the New Study.

Maybe only family members or regular visitors would use the entrance you are talking about. I say this because I suspect security officials would worry about the easy access into the heart of the Imperial accomodation that this latter door gives. Its just 3 doors to the Imperial bedroom..............
Anyway, I've just managed to buy Spiridovitch, so if anybody knew he would.......................

[amy]

Amy, I am very excited by your pictures.
Do you have any more???

Of this particular area? No.  Sorry. I took quite a few pictures at the AP, but unfortunatley they're all equally as bad as the two I just provided. Sigh. C'est la vie, I suppose.  :-/

Amy

[nigbil]

Looking at the picture of the staircase, it is original though I'm not 100% certain about the banister.

Its certainly not ornate and looks like its use was primarily by servants. But I assume that it was also used by the children as well. I wonder if the children were allowed to use the lift? I suppose Gilliard would say something. Lifts are great fun for children to play in and I would imagine that the children, when young, were forbidden to use it unescorted.
On the subject of the lift, and I believe this topic is of special interest to the FA, was it the type that had someone sitting in it all the time 'operating it, or did one get into it and press the buttons oneself? Did it have glass doors or the type still used in elderly French hotels with a metal grill you pulled/pushed to open/close.

[La_Mashka]

Amy...

We experienced the EXACT same problem with our camera... most of our pics from AP are blurry...