Next door to Kew Palace the Georgian royal kitchen remains miraculously preserved, 200 years after it was last used. 

After over a year of conservation work and a million pounds spent, Historic Royal Palaces will open the building to the public for the first time in May 2012 as an exciting, permanent addition to the palace experience.    

The building is more than just a kitchen; separate rooms housed a scullery, bake-house, larders, stores for silver and spices, as well as accommodation for the clerk of the kitchen and other members of the 30 or so team who catered to the royal table in the 18th century.

The kitchen must have buzzed with activity when in use. 

Amazingly the original range survives, and we have a wonderful array of documents which chart every item of equipment from the scummers down to the nutmeg scrapers, and even the food being served. 

Our new permanent exhibition will evoke life on the 6th February 1789, when George III was given back his knife and fork, after his first episode of ‘madness’. 

The rooms are being restored, but we want to retain the evocative sense of a building long abandoned, except for the clerk’s office, where it will appear as if he has just stepped out of the room. 

Projection and lighting will bring some areas back to life and there may even be occasions when the smell of cooking wafts through the building once again.