The Royal Kitchens at Kew will open to the public for the very first time, on 18 May 2012, following a £1.7m conservation and interpretation project by independent charity Historic Royal Palaces. Untouched since the time of King George III, these remarkably preserved historic kitchens, which have been carefully conserved and restored, reveal a fascinating insight into Georgian culinary life.
The kitchens will tell the story of a particularly special day in Kew Palace’s history, 6 February 1789. On this date King George III was given back his knife and fork after his latest bout of illness (presumed to be madness, but now known to have been Pophyria) and the Master Cook of the Kitchens was busy overseeing the preparation of the royal menu.
Largely unchanged for nearly 200 years, the Royal Kitchens show where the food for the royal table was prepared and how it was cooked. Staffed by a Master Cook and his team, the kitchens and their several offices stored and served food for the table of the King and Queen and their household during royal visits to the Palace. Original and uniquely surviving features include the original kitchen ovens, roasting range, a scullery dresser and both original kitchen and bake house tables. Together these objects make Kew Palace home to one of the most significant Georgian kitchens in the country.
Susanne Groom, Historic Royal Palaces Curator, said: “These recently unveiled Royal Kitchens have remained virtually untouched for almost two centuries, and consequently, many parts of the kitchens have remained unaltered. Visitors to these kitchens will experience a sense of discovery, of opening the door to a lost space and a forgotten time, a time capsule that speaks of kitchens and cookery, of food and fashion and wealth and power.
The whole experience is like creeping into a long abandoned house, where the occupants left in a hurry and all personal belongings are here to be explored and wondered at. The inhabitants have left clues behind of their lives and work and visitors will pick up information from recipes and letters that have been left behind.”
Sound effects and video projections will conjure up the bustle and atmosphere of the great kitchens, along with a fully reconstructed charcoal range, displays of pots, cooking utensils, and a specially recreated kitchen garden. Upstairs, visitors can explore the Clerk of the Kitchen’s office, complete with a spice cupboard overflowing with the rarest and most exotic delicacies. Costumed hosts will welcome visitors through the kitchens, accompanied by audio-visual display, and on special occasions live cooking by the historic kitchens team will bring the kitchens to life.
The Royal Kitchens were built and fitted out with all the latest 1730s kitchen gadgets by Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of George III, and were in use until the death of George’s consort, Queen Charlotte, in 1818. Extensive research, carried out by Historic Royal Palaces curators, has uncovered a wealth of information about the kitchens, how they were used, the staff who worked there, and the meals they created. The 18th century kitchens reveal what was necessary for a style of grand dining, which was soon to be replaced by what is more familiar today. While most stately homes changed their kitchens to accommodate the new fashions in dining and preparation, the Royal Kitchens were closed and left untouched, following the departure of Queen Charlotte – effectively fossilising its Georgian layout and fittings.
