of 1956, a new house is to be built for the Gallery within the next few
years.
At present, the more interesting and distinctive works, tracing the
development of Russian art through nearly ten centuries, are exhibit in
the Gallery’s 54 halls.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Buckingham palace is the official London residence of Her Majesty The
Queen and as such is one of the best known and most potent symbols of the
British monarchy. Yet it has been a royal residence for only just over two
hundred and thirty years and a palace for much less; and its name, known
the world over, is owed not to a monarch but to an English Duke.
Buckingham House was built for John, first Duke of Buckingham, between
1702 and 1705. It was sold to the Crown in 1762. Surprisingly, since it was
a large house in a commanding position, it was never intended to be the
principal residence of the monarch.
Although King George III modernised and enlarged the house considerably
in the 1760s and 17770s, the transformations that give the building its
present palatial character were carried out for King George IY by Nash in
the 1820s, by Edward Blore for King William IY and Queen Victoria in
the 1830s and 40s, and by James Pennethoooorne in the 1850s.
In the reign of King Edward YII, much of the present white and gold
decoration was substituted for the richly coloured 19th century schemes of
Nash and Blore; and in the 1920s, Queen Mary used the firm of White Allom
to redecorate a number of rooms.
The rooms open to visitors are used principally for official
entertainment .These include Receptions and State Banquets, and it is on
such occasions, when the rooms are filled with flowers and thronged with
formally dressed guests and liveried servants, that the Palace is seen
at its most splendid and imposing. But of course the Palace is also far
more than just the London home of the Royal Family and a place of lavish
entertainment. It has become the administrative centre of the monarchy
where, among a multitude of engagements, Her Majesty receives foreign
Heads of State, Commonwealth leaders and representatives of the Diplomatic
Corps and conducts Investitures, and where the majority of the Royal
Houshold, consisting of six main Departments and a staff of about three
hundred people, have their offices.
THE QUEEN’S HOUSE
The Duke of Buckingham’s house, which George III purchased in 1762,
was designed by the architect William Winde, possibly with the advice of
John Talman, in 1702.
The new house, a handsome brick and stone mansion crowned with
statuary and joined by colonnades to outlying wings, looked eastward
down the Mall and westwards over the splendid canal and formal gardens,
laid out for the Duke by Henry Wise partly on the site of the royal
Mulberry Garden. This garden had been part of an ill-fated attempt by
James I to introduce a silk industry to rival that of France by planting
thousands of mulberry trees.
The building and its setting were well suited to the dignity of the
Duke, a former Lord Chamberlain and suitor of Princess Anne, and of his
wife, an illegitimate daughter of James II, whose eccentricity and
delusions of grandeur earned her the nickname of «Princess Buckingham».
The principal rooms, then as now, were on the first floor. They were
reached by a magnificent staircase with ironwork by Jean Tijou and
walls painted by Louis Laguerre with the story of Dido and Aeneas.
Under the architectural direction of Sir William Chambers and over
the following twelve years The Queen’s House was gradually modernised
and enlarged to provide accommodation for the King and Queen and their
children, as well as their growing collection of books, pictures and
works of art.
QUEEN VICTORIA’S PALACE
At the age of eighteen, Queen Victoria became the first Sovereign to
live at Buckingham Palace.
John Nash had rightly predicted that the Palace would prove too
small, but this was a fault capable of remedy. The absence of a chapel was
made good after the Queen’s marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha, when the south conservatory was converted in 1843.
In 1847 the architect Edward Blore added the new East Front. Along the
first floor Blore placed the Principal Corridor, a gallery 240 feet long
overlooking the Quadrangle and divided into three sections by folding
doors of mirror glass. It links the Royal Corridor on the south, and opens
into suites of semi-state rooms facing the Mall and St James’s Park. Blore
introduced into the East Front some of the finest fittings from George
IY’s Royal Pavilion at Brighton, which Queen Victoria ceased to use after
the purchase of Osborn House in 1845.
The new building rendered the Marble Arch both functionally and
ornamentally dispensable, and it was removed in 1850 to its present site
at the north-east corner of Hyde Park.
THE STATE ROOMS
Most of the principal State Rooms are located on to first floor of
Bughingham Palace. They are approached from Nash’s Grand Hall which in
its unusual low proportions echoes the original hall of Bughingham House.
The coupled columns which surround the Hall are each composed of a single
block of veined Carrara marble enriched with Corinthian capitals of gilt
bronze made by Samuel Parker.
The Grand Staircase, built by Nash on site of the original stairs,
divides theatrically into three flights at the first landing, two flights
curving upwards to the Guard room. The gilded balustrade was made by
Samuel Parker in 1828-30. The walls are set with full-length portraits
which include George III and Queen Charlotte by Beechey,William IY by
Lawrence and Queen Adelaide by Archer Shee. The sculptured wall panels were
designed by Thomas Stothard and the etched glass dome was made by
Wainwright and Brothers.
GALLERY
The picture Gallery, the largest room in the Palace, was formed by
Nash in the area of Queen Charlotte’s old apartments. Nash’s ceiling,
modified by Blore in the 1830s, was altered by Sir Aston Webb in 1914.
As there are many loans to exhibitions, the arrangement is subject to
periodic change. However the Gallery normally contains works by Van Dyck,
Rubens, Cuyp and Rembrandt among others. The chimneypieces are carved with
heads of artists and the marble group at the end, by Chantrey, represents
Mrs Jordan, mistress of William.
From the Suilk Tapestry Room the route leads via the East Gallery,
Cross and West Galleries to the State Dining Room. This room is used on
formal occasions and is hung with portraits of GeorgeIY, his parents,
grandparents and great-grandparents.
THE PALACE AT WORK
BUCKINNGHAM Palace is certainly one of the most famous buildings in
the world, known to millions as Queen’s home. Yet it is very much a
working building and centre of the large office complex that is required
for the administration of the modern monarchy.
Although foreign ambassadors are officially accredited to the Court of
St James’s
and some ceremonies, such as the Proclamation of a new Sovereign, still
take place at St James’s Palace, all official business now effectively
takes place at Buckingham Palace.
In some ways the Palace resembles a small town. For the 300 people who
work there, there is a Post office and a police station, staff canteens
and dinning rooms. There is a special three-man security team equipped with
a fluoroscope, which examines every piece of mail that arrives at the
Palace.
There is also a soldier who is responsible for making sure the Royal
Standard is flying whenever The Queen is in residence, and to make sure it
is taken down when she leaves. It is his job to watch for the moment when
the Royal limousine turns into the Palace gates - at the very second The
Queen enters her Palace, the Royal Standard is hoisted.
Buckingham Palace is not only the name of the Royal Family but also the
workplace of an army of secretaries, clerks and typists, telephonists,
carpenters and plumbers etc.
The business of monarchy never stops and the light is often shining
from the window of the Queen’s study late at night as she works on the
famous «boxes», the red and blue leather cases in which are delivered the
State papers, official letters and reports which follow her whenever she
is in the world.
There can hardly be a single one of 600 or so rooms in the Palace that
is not in more or less constant use.
The senior member of the Royal Household is the Lord Chamberlain. In
addition to the role of overseeing all the departments of the Household, he
has a wide variety of responsibilities, including all ceremonial duties
relating to the Sovereign, apart from the wedding, coronation and funeral
of the monarch. .These remain the responsibility of the Earl Marshal, the
Duke of Norfolk. The Lord Chamberlain’s Office has the greatest variety of
responsibilities. It looks after all incoming visits by overseas Heads of
State and the administration of the Chapels Royal. It also supervises the
appointment of Pages of Honour , the Sergeants of Arms, the Marshal of the
Diplomatic Corps, the Master of the Queen’s Music, and the Keeper of the
Queen’s Swans.
The director of the Royal Collection is responsible for one of the
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