The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
My V&A Q&A proved instructive
After last week’s cultural fiesta surrounding the opening of V&A Dundee, I was intrigued to try to find out when the real V&A, in human and royal form, visited the city. I admit that, apart from a passing mention in the odd history book and a working visit or two to Perthshire’s Queen’s View, I didn’t know much about Victoria and Albert’s Scottish sojourns furth of Balmoral and the invention of tartan carpeting.
Bumping into all-round fount of knowledge and former city archivist Iain Flett, I was quickly put right on many interesting fronts. And, of course, even I realised that the building in which we happened to cross paths, the magnificent McManus – celebrating 150 years of being at the core of art, culture and the life of the city (not to mention once being voted Dundee’s best-loved building) – started out back in 1868 as the Albert Institute.
Unlike Queen Elizabeth I , who slept just about everywhere on her progresses across Englandshire, Queen Vic rarely laid her head anywhere but in the most aristocratic of boudoirs – or in her own royal suites – during her visits to this particular neck of the woods but famously came to Dundee in the 1840s with Albert in tow, the result of which was the building, between 1849 and 1853 of the famous and now no-longer-extant Royal Arch. The architectural structure, not the pub, like I need to tell you that.
They also passed through on various occasions on the way to Balmoral, allegedly, although if that is the case, I suspect the royal sat-nav might have been a bit out of kilter. Anyway, given that we now have a pretty major 21st Century edifice bearing both their names, I was glad to re-acquaint myself with a little bit of the related history. Up until then, I freely confess, I had a vague notion that Queen Victoria’s visit to Dundee might just have been veiled in the kind of wondrous “it- never happened- but- it- should-have” atmosphere of that great Michael Marra song, Frida Kahlo’s Visit to the Tay Bridge Bar. As her current Majesty herself is said to have remarked: “I have to be seen to be believed.”
Any road up, it was also instructive to learn, during my research, that the said lady, who has probably travelled more widely than most people on Earth, let alone in history, always takes a Dundee cake on the royal flight. You can take the cake out of Dundee…
Style icons
Staying with matters royal, did you know Duchess Kate has knocked Duchess Megan into the proverbial cocked fascinator when it comes to influential fashion choices?
According to eBay’s annual UK Retail Report, we are all hanging about with bated breath each week to catch a glimpse of whichever rig-oot the two ladies choose then rushing out to buy it.
The fact a poll of royal fashion influence exists makes me wonder what some people do with their time, not to mention who the heck it was who was polled. I know it’s all anecdotal and polls are usually a complete mash-up to prove the point of those who commissioned them or scarily accurate predictions of how badly screwed up politics is in this country. I know all that. But to my certain knowledge, I have never been asked either about which party I voted for or whether I think Kate looks more fetching than Megan in a tea dress and nude heels.
That Princess Charlotte came in third in this poll shows the level of seriously cute manipulation going on. Any mother who pores over pictures of the royal offspring and concludes that life is incomplete without the Peter Pan collar or the smocked bodice really needs to get a grip on something other than the online order form.