Kew Palace – Palely Laura

Recently I paid a visit to Kew Palace as part of a special event. The Palace comes under the care of Historic Royal Palaces, and is the smallest palace in the organisation’s collection. It’s very rare that it is possible to visit on a standalone trip – it is located in the grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, and you can usually only see it as part of a visit there.

History

Kew Palace is the smallest of all the royal palaces. It was originally built as a fashionable mansion for wealthy London silk merchant, Samuel Fortrey, in 1631. The building is often known as the Dutch House, as it was built in a supposedly Dutch style of architecture. Kew and nearby Richmond, as well as the now-defunct White House (of which the kitchens still remain near Kew Palace), were loved by the Georgians, particularly George II and Queen Caroline, followed by George III and his family. Kew Palace, much more intimate and personal than most royal palaces, proved a useful retreat for the king when he suffered from illness.

My Visit

My friend and I met with the other participants at the Elizabeth Gate of Kew Gardens, which is next to the common, and were taken to the Palace. Our first port of call was actually the nearby kitchens, originally a part of the White House.

We drank wine and wandered through the vegetable garden. There were a few interesting things to see in the kitchens, particularly George III’s bath, which was rediscovered a few years ago. George would come over to the kitchens to have his bath in order to save the servants from lugging hot water over to the palace, and I started to picture King George in Hamilton singing one of his songs in the bath.

Our tour of the palace itself began on the ground floor and encompassed the whole house. We learned about King George, his wife Queen Charlotte and their fifteen (!) children, all but two of whom grew to adulthood. George and Charlotte tried to set a moral example to their subjects, but their children rebelled, the sons gambling, drinking and taking mistresses and the daughters – trapped at home – embarking upon affairs with members of the Royal household.

The bedrooms of two of the daughters can be found on the top floor, dismantled now but still containing the ancient fireplace that was brought there from (it is believed) Richmond Palace. Charlotte was reluctant to allow her daughters to marry; her attitude is harsh but somewhat understandable given her husband suffered frequent bouts of illness and madness (probably porphyria) and she was often frightened of him. Charlotte eventually died in the Palace: en route to attend the double wedding of her sons William and Edward, she fell ill and the wedding took place within the Palace, where she died later in 1818.

As part of this ‘hidden’ tour we got to explore the attic, formerly the home of the servants and full of nooks and crannies, as well as graffiti left over from the palace’s use as changing rooms in the mid-twentieth century. We also saw the undercroft, originally built in Tudor times with excellent examples of stonework.

The Palace fell into disuse after the death of Queen Charlotte, and Queen Victoria gave it and the nearby Queen Charlotte’s Cottage to Kew Gardens in 1898, to mark her Diamond Jubilee. The Palace has been open to the public ever since, apart from a break in 1996-2006 for refurbishment and restoration.

Nowadays, the Palace is open to Kew Garden visitors during the warmer half of the year. It is also possible to visit on a special Curious Kew evening tour, as I did. The next is due to take place on 20 September 2018. I definitely recommend it as a small but perfectly-formed place to visit.

FACTS

Address: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE

Website: hrp.org.uk/kew-palace

Opening Hours: 10.30-7.30 during the summer months

Prices: £16 adults, £14 concessions, £4 children, under-4’s free (prices are for admission to Kew Gardens)

Despite having lived in London for over two years, I’d never been to Kew Gardens. At a loss for something to do on Sunday, however, I decided to finally visit. I caught a bus from my home in west London which dropped me off outside, however there is also an Underground and Overground service nearby in the form of Kew Gardens station (you could also try wombling free – sorry, bad joke).

Though Kew opens at 9.30 am in the summer, I didn’t get there until 1 pm, and wished I had turned up earlier as there was a bit of a queue – I only had to wait around fifteen minutes, however. Kew is huge – the site covers 132 hectares (326 acres) and there is a lot to see. It is possible to take the Kew Explorer, a kind of open bus, around the gardens, with regular departures at key points plus a commentary – but this costs £4 (£1 for a child) so I didn’t bother. I wished I had by the end of the day, though, as I was shattered!

The Temperate House (along with its neighbour Evolution House) is currently closed for restoration until 2018. This was a shame, as it is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world (opened 1863, the same year as the first London Underground line) and I would have liked to see it. Still, I suppose they’ve got to do their restoration work sometime – and it was one less thing for me to visit.

Instead, I headed right and went into the Palm House. As the name suggests, this glasshouse holds an amazing variety of palms. Not being a gardening expert, I grew slightly bored after looking at a few, but the general atmosphere of the house was evocative. In fact, it was rather TOO evocative – up on the walkway, it was so hot and humid that I thought I was going to faint! Underneath the glasshouse, there were – bizarrely – a number of fishtanks.

Outside, I popped into the nearby Waterlily House. Though it was small, the waterlilies were amazing – but there was the same humidity problem I had experienced in the Palm House, so I made a fast exit.

As a respite from the humid greenhouses, I decided to have a look inside the Plants & People exhibition in a stone building behind the lake. This looked at the ways in which people make use of plants, from food and housing to furniture, jewellery, musical instruments and pain relief. The exhibition was fascinating, if a little too packed to take everything in.

Next, I headed towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory, which was one of my favourite parts of Kew. Inside, varying climates are replicated in different areas to show the different kinds of plants that grow in varied climates. For instance, cacti and plants such as aloes grow in the desert – I was fascinated by one species that resembles a group of stones, which helps protect it from predators. Delicate orchids grow in more temperate climates, while leafy palms prefer tropical environments. I was also interested in the room of carnivorous plants: I spent some time watching a fly hovering round the edge of one to see if it would be eaten – luckily it survived this time!

After this I wandered over to Kew Palace (open April – September 10.30 – 17.30). This palace is small by palatial standards, resembling a small country manor more than a royal home. Famously, it is the place where George III stayed during his bouts of ‘madness’ (probably porphyria). Poignantly, the dishes from which he was fed during his worst days are on display, as are letters relating to his illness. The rooms at the top of the house are unrestored and stripped back, allowing us to get an idea of what they would have been like when Georgian princesses lived in them. Round the corner from the Palace are the Royal Kitchens, the only remaining part of the former palace complex that stood on the site.

After stopping for a piece of cake and a cup of tea at the White Peaks Café, I spent some time exploring the top end of the gardens. There were fewer people at this end and it was peaceful and pleasant, with beautiful plants and trees everywhere. At one point I was walking by the river. Eventually I passed the Badger Sett, which is designed for kids to explore – obviously I didn’t go in here but it looked like the kids who were there were having a great time!

Eventually I came to the Treetop Walkway, which allows you to see round the gardens, although I couldn’t see much except the tops of the trees (and the Temperate House through a gap in some of them). The walkway is high and there are lots of stairs, but there is also a lift. The walkway itself can be worryingly wobbly, but it seems sturdy enough, and the barriers around it are high.

After this, I wandered over to the bottom corner of the gardens to admire the Pagoda and the Japanese Gateway before walking in the direction of Victoria Gate (the main gate, where I came in) once again. On the way, I entered the Marianne North Gallery and the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. The former contains hundreds of beautiful watercolours painted by Victorian artist Marianne North, while the latter is currently displaying beautiful and intricate paintings of flowers and vegetables (which are more interesting than they sound!).

I was really exhausted by this time, so after a quick look at the Mediterranean Garden, I headed off. Not before treating myself to some hand cream and wildflower body spray in the shop first, though!

***Visitor Info***

Kew has several entrances: the Victoria Gate is the main gate on Kew Road – other gates can be found to the left of the Victoria Gate (Lion Gate), the right (Elizabeth Gate) and by the river (Brentford Gate, for cars and motorbikes only).

Tickets are priced at £16 for adults (£14.50 without the ‘voluntary’ donation – I hate this practice but loads of places do it nowadays), but I was able to get in for half price with my Art Fund pass. Concessions are £14 (or £12.50) and children under 16 go free. This summer, it is also possible to buy a “lazy summer afternoons” ticket for £7 if you turn up after 3.30 pm.

Opening times vary with the season; in summer the gates open at 9.30 am and close at 7.30 pm, though most attractions within the gardens close at least half an hour earlier.

I had a really lovely day at Kew and I would recommend it to anyone. I think you’d get the most out of it if you have a particular interest in gardening or plants, but I haven’t and I still managed to have a good time. I would like to visit again at a different time so I can get an idea of how it changes with the seasons.