A majestic makeover
Buckingham Palace was the ultimate fixerupper when Queen Victoria moved in. Marion Mcmullen looks at how she and Prince Albert helped transform the unfinished building into a des-res palace
IT BOASTS 775 rooms including 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms and 19 state rooms, but when Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace it was far from ideal.
The 18-year-old monarch moved into the palace just three weeks into her reign in 1838 and found a building that had been empty for seven years with many of the rooms still unfinished and undecorated. There were also dodgy drains and doors and windows that did not close properly.
She had been urged to stay at her childhood home of Kensington Palace, but was determined to make changes in her new life right from the start.
New exhibition Queen’s Victoria Palace opens at Buckingham Palace next month to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the famous ruler.
Through objects from the Royal Collection and an immersive experience in the Palace’s Ballroom, visitors will learn how Victoria made Buckingham Palace what it remains today – the headquarters of the monarchy, a rallying point for national celebrations and a family home.
Victoria wed her first cousin Albert at the age of 20 after falling deeply in love with him, and together they set about turning Buckingham Palace into a family home and a working royal residence.
She memorably said on meeting him for the first time: “It was with some emotion... that I beheld Albert – who is beautiful.”
He wrote in a letter to her: “Even in my dreams I never imagined that I should find so much love on Earth.”
over the next 17 years, the couple had nine children, eight of whom were born at Buckingham Palace. But as early as 1845 it was clear that Buckingham Palace was no longer large enough to accommodate the royal couple’s rapidly expanding family.
Victoria wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel that year concerning ‘the urgent necessity of doing something to Buckingham Palace’ and ‘the total want of accommodation for our growing little family’.
Parliament granted Victoria £20,000 for the completion and extension of Buckingham Palace on August 13, 1846. Additional funds were raised from the sale of King George IV’S seaside retreat, the Royal Pavilion, to Brighton Corporation for £50,000.
Architect Edward Blore was commissioned the following year to draw up plans for alterations to Buckingham Palace and the East Wing was added at the front of the building, enclosing what had previously been an open, horseshoe
shaped courtyard and introducing the famous central balcony.
Shortly afterwards a new ballroom was added to the State Rooms to the designs of the architect James Pennethorne, fulfilling Victoria’s wish for a space ‘capable of containing a larger number of those persons whom the Queen has to invite in the course of the season to balls, concerts etc than any of the present apartments can hold.’
The writer John Ruskin had witnessed the shortcomings of the palace’s other rooms for entertaining, describing an occasion at Court as ‘the most awkward crush… with the ruins of ladies dresses, torn lace and fallen flowers’.
During their time together at Buckingham Palace, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert held three magnificent themed costume balls. These occasions were both celebrations of British history and a showcase for the country’s textile industry. Guests were encouraged to commission elaborate costumes to give work to the Spitalfield silk weavers, whose business was in sharp decline.
The Stuart Ball in 1851 had as its theme the Restoration period, with guests dressed in the style of Charles II’S court.
Queen Victoria’s costume was designed by the artist Eugène Lami and had a bodice and full skirt of grey moiré trimmed with gold lace and an underskirt of gold and silver brocade.
Victoria later wrote in her private journal: “I was so proud and pleased to see my beloved Albert looking so handsome, truly royal and distinguished, and so much admired. I must say our costumes were beautifully made.”
The palace ballroom was inaugurated in 1856 and Victoria hosted a ball there to mark the end of the Crimean War and to honour the returning soldiers. A watercolour by Louis Haghe is the only surviving record of the ballroom’s original Italian Renaissance-inspired decoration devised by Prince Albert’s artistic mentor, Ludwig Gruner.
Victoria’s noted in her journal: ‘Albert, even, who generally dislikes State Balls, enjoyed it, and I could have stayed up till 4, I am sure.”
A waltz danced at the Crimean Ball and the ballroom’s original decorative scheme will be recreated as part of the new exhibition.
A Victorian illusion technique, known as Pepper’s Ghost, and projections around the room will also enable visitors to imagine the ballroom as Victoria and Albert would have known it.
■ Queen Victoria’s Palace is part of a visit to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. It runs from July 20 to September 29. Go to rct.uk for details or call +44 (0)303 123 7300 for advance tickets and visitor information.