Queen opens her front lawn to picnics
Grass really is a little greener on the other side
• For the first time in her nearly 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II is allowing the people to picnic on her front lawn. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the courtiers say. And the grass? It really is a little greener on the other side.
“The boss,” as the staff openly call the monarch, think the people need this bit of fresh air after a wretched year: a scone with jam and cream, a cup of tea in an otherworldly oasis.
And so for the rest of the summer, starting on Friday, the paying public may sprawl upon the Main Lawn behind the high walls of Buckingham Palace.
This kind of access is unprecedented in the modern era. A ticket holder who pays the US$23 price, can arrive with a bucket of chicken and a bedsheet, if they want, in ripped jeans and flip-flops, and recline on some of the most sublime, privileged, historic, protected acres on Earth.
Before? Do Not Walk On the Grass.
Now? Please Do.
In a normal year — the last two summers were not normal — the Queen would host several Royal Garden Parties in May and June, before she and her retinue went north for 10 weeks in Scotland.
These garden fetes were prized invites — and would be attended by 8,000 invited guests per party, decked out in summer frocks and fascinators for the ladies, top hats and morning coats for the gents, who were served 20,000 pieces of cake and a torrent of champagne.
In a typical year, another 8,000 paying guests a day typically tour the State Rooms inside the palace, filing out through the back garden along the paths — no lingering or picnicking.
But because of the bummer coronavirus, the state rooms remain closed. And there are still no Royal Garden Parties. And so the idea of allowing for picnics for the rest of us.
There are some rules, naturally. No knives to slice your sausage or brie. No dogs. No beer, no booze at all, not even a bottle of the Buckingham Palace Dry Gin (available in the gift shop for $50).
“The idea is ‘sober picnics,’” said Sarah Davis, head of media relations for the Royal Collection Trust.
A Thursday preview was attended by the contractors who built the loos, hoteliers, tour guides, concierges, caterers and the media.
Frances O’neill, 64, enjoyed a “low-key plebeian picnic,” with sandwiches brought from Pret a Manger, a popular chain.
That was followed by an ice cream and a lovely stroll through the gardens, which include lakes, wildflower meadows, ancient oaks, beehives and the descendants of mulberries planted by James I in 1608. (He wanted to make silk but got the wrong trees.)