The doors to George III’s country retreat, Kew Palace, open on Thursday 27 April 2006 following a decade-long £6.6 million conservation and representation project by independent charity Historic Royal Palaces.
The much-anticipated project unites a number of pertinent and personal possessions that belonged to King George and his family with interiors faithfully redecorated and furnished as the Royal family would have known them.
George III, Queen Charlotte and their family often spent time at Kew enjoying the beautiful gardens by the River Thames as well as escaping the gaze of the public eye. However, the palace is probably best known as the place where George III privately recuperated from his illness, supposed to be ‘madness’, but now known to have been porphyria.
A domestic Royal residence, Kew’s small and modest layout and appearance was a stark contrast to typical expectations of Royal palaces with grand and opulent State apartments and rooms for impressing guests to the court. Following years of detailed archaeological and archival research the interior décor of the palace’s first floor rooms have been returned to their former glory of two centuries ago. Schemes featuring bright green verditer wallpaper contrasting with vivid black, gold and red furnishings, once so familiar to residents King George and Queen Charlotte, will surprise and delight visitors.
Fitted carpets, a relatively new fashion in early 1800, have been recreated using designs from an historic archive, and traditional techniques were employed to produce handmade green and black flocked wallpaper, and furnishing fabrics and chintz’s were authentically woven. This fascinating insight into Georgian taste and style is revealed to visitors in the Drawing and Dining Rooms, The Queen’s Boudoir and the Bedchambers of Queen Charlotte and Princess Elizabeth.
Objects and artefacts, including some personal belongings of King George, Queen Charlotte and their children, are also displayed, such as a striking wax life-mask of the King (created by Madame Tussaud herself), a Dolls’ House made by the young Princesses, a harpsichord that belonged to George III’s father, a waistcoat worn by the King later in his life and the chair in which Queen Charlotte died at Kew in 1818.
These and other pieces reflecting their diverse range of interests illustrate the story of the King’s life and that of his family, alongside innovative audio and visual interpretation. A ‘radio play’ takes visitors on a journey through the palace, helping them discover and understand Kew Palace’s fascinating story and the events that unfolded there during the King’s residence.
Finally, the rooms on the second floor, once the bedrooms of Princesses Augusta and Amelia, which have remained untouched since the princesses’ departure nearly 200 years ago, are opened for the first time ever in the palace’s history. The expression “if the walls could speak” really applies at Kew Palace – over the years we have learnt so much about the building as well as the people who lived there through the archaeology and physical evidence they have left behind. Rather than cover up these layers of fascinating evidence and the stories we have subsequently learnt, they have been left exposed on the second floor for 21st century visitors to enjoy and explore in an unrestored, yet conserved state.
