Buckingham Palace
I love a good stately home visit - the history, the stories of previous owners, the chintz, the glitz and the gardens (plus the bonus of a gift shop and a tea room). But despite living in London I've never been to the mother of all stately homes in England's capital - Buckingham Palace. A quick poll of my fellow London-based friends told me that no one had been there, regarding it as somewhere for tourists and school-groups. Strange that we all had that viewpoint; it's a pretty special building right in the middle of London, and, I decided one September Sunday, it's well overdue a visit.
When we visited they had a fantastic royal childhood exhibition. As childhood homes goes it's none too shabby, and on display you could see the toys, swishy clothes, school books, drawings, and even home movies of various royals who grew up there - including princes Charles, William and Harry. You can also visit the Queen's Gallery (pictured above) in which her Majesty shows off some of her bestest treasures. You won't be surprised to know that taking photos inside the palace is punishable by death* so you'll have to take my word for it that the rooms are beautiful, and the extra layers of history (and of celebrity) surrounding the Royals makes it an interesting place to visit. Sadly, them Royals may be getting a bit too greedy. The masses amount of people let in throughout the day makes each room almost unbearably squashed, and bossy guards hurry you along if you dare to stop and read information cards. Maybe this only happens during exhibitions, so I would suggest either going very late or very early in the day.
A highlight of the visit were The Royal Mews where we got to see the Queen's collection of fancy pants coaches and cars, and see some of her beautiful (yet sleepy) horses. The Queen personally names all of them, and it was so sweet to see some cute monikers she'd bestowed, like Firework and Cinderella. Apparently, she gets them all together around Christmas time and gives each and every one of them a sugar lump. A horsey Christmas party! The coaches were pretty darn spectacular too - one of them takes two days to get on the road as they have to take down a coach-house wall to get it out. Is it just me, or does one of these coaches look like an angry face?
The grounds are fun to stroll around, of course them Royals kept loads of central London fields for their private parkland. There are calm lakes to potter around, and also some islands in the middle of them. I might be confusing this with another story, but I'm sure the body of a homeless man was found on one of the islands a few years ago. There seem to be a few stories of intruders at Buckingham Palace, they might want to step up their security - it's not like they don't enough money from all the exhibition tickets they sell....
Anyway, cramped conditions aside, I recommend the palace. Especially if you love any of these things: history, royalty, gossip, snooping, interiors and architecture. I hope that the next time I get to go is because I am being given an MBE for services to blogging.
* Not really. The Royal family are not allowed to kill people anymore.