Days 6 & 7—First Day of Class and A Royal Tour
Day 6—First Day of Class
The first day of classes was a busy day, so there wasn't much time for sightseeing, but after class, I headed over to see this arch, commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother, Queen Victoria. It's currently being converted into a Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel.
I love my class here! It's co-taught by two professors, who bring opposing perspectives to the topic of the British monarchy's history. Both are engaging and very knowledgeable. One of my professors did a few ungraded quizzes to test our prior knowledge of British geography and the British monarchy. He gave antique coins to the students who scored highest on the quizzes, so even though I did horrible on the geography quiz, my score on the one about the monarchy made me the lucky owner of a 1799 coin of King George III ("America's favorite king," said my professor). I love old coins, but since my oldest coin comes from 1965, I was thrilled to get one from over two centuries ago! I can tell this class will be a ton of fun!
Day 7—A Royal Tour
Click on the pictures for a description!
The Buckingham Palace gates are named for parts of the British Empire—one gate is named for Australia and New Zealand, one for Canada, and one for South and West Africa—so symbolically the whole empire is right there! According to my professor, the palace is really the heart of the country.
Behind these trees are the Wellington Barracks, where the Queen's Guards live.
This extra wing (right) is where the royal family actually lives, and it also houses the Queen's sitting room—it's more private. When the Queen enters to complex, a limo takes her through the gate into her private entrance, which has an elevator up to her sitting room. She sits and drinks tea there.
This statue of Queen Victoria, a national monument, is nicknamed "wedding cake".
Formerly, the only flag that flew over Buckingham Palace was the royal flag, and even then, the flag only waved when the queen was in residence. However, when Princess Diana died, the Queen was at Balmoral, so no flag was flying over Buckingham—meaning no flag was lowered to half-mast for Diana's death. The public was horrified and they pressured the royal family to fly one, so the Queen agreed to fly the national flag there at half mast. It’s flown there very since. The palace has a sergeant at arms just to take care of the flag. He has an office on the roof to wash and iron the flag.
This is Landsdown House, home of the Marquess of Landsdown and now a royal residence for entertaining visitors. They sometimes have barbeques in the gardens for American soldiers there; at one of these, Obama and the British Prime Minister flipped burgers (it was all for show, the chefs really did it).
This is Saint James’s Palace. It's not a royal residence because the Queen doesn’t live here, but this is her office and the home of official ceremonies. The oldest part is at the end with the towers; it dates to Tudor times and was a hospital for lepers run by monks. Henry VIII decided he wanted the hospital, so in his greed, he threw all the lepers out and took it over. St James’s palace has been the official residence of the monarch since the royal family's old palace, Whitehall, burned down in 1698. Now, St. James's is the official residence of the monarch as well as the nursery palace of the Crown Prince. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that St. James’s street is the center of world, due to the elite gentlemen’s clubs and the businesses catering to royals.
This building is Chapel Royal, the Queen’s private chapel. It used to be where royal weddings were celebrated, including Queen Victoria’s wedding. It’s a development of the twentieth century that weddings are at Westminster Abbey. Prior to the 1900s, weddings hadn't happened at Wesminter for centuries. However, since the royal procession in the 1900s had to travel down a few streets, thousands of people would be able to see what was going on at Westminster. Moving the weddings back to Westminster where they were more public was a huge boost for PR. The clock was built in 1832,with the cipher of William IV.
This historical street, only a few blocks away from the palace, is where high-end clients go for various services. The shop with the flag is a wine merchant's store which has been there since 1633. The hat shop has been there since 1676. The reason for this street's popularity is the old royal port—the place to put your shop if you want it to do well is by the royal port, because you want the royals to come. The hairdresser's store is from 1805 and is the oldest hairdresser in the world; Charles Dickens went there and Prince Philip has occasionally got his hair done there.
People loved these old buses so much that the company didn’t retire all of them. This one is now used for theater advertisements.
The "first" floor (as they call the second floor here) window above the door is where Charles lived after he and Diana separated, when he was a bachelor again. My professor told us about an Italian thief, who was on vacation here and didn’t know who lived in that window. He saw it was open, broke in, and stole cufflinks. The Italian police arrested the burglar and mailed the cufflinks back, saying “compliments of Italian police”.
The white building on the right, behind the gate, was where Queen Mother lived until 2002. It's called Clarence House. Now, Charles and Camilla live there. Harry and William also lived there until they got married. Clarence House is one of only three royal locations with armed guards, along with Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace.
This is a memorial for Queen Elizabeth II’s royal grandmother. Apparently, she was known to be terrifying. She supervised Elizabeth’s upbringing, but died just before Elizabeth’s coronation. Before she died, she was asked if she had any regrets. She said she regretted never climbing over a fence; thus, they put a fence around her memorial, so if her ghost wants to climb she can.
The Queen Mother (Elizabeth II's mother) lived to be 102. She died just before her daughter's Jubilee. She was from the Scottish aristocracy and she grew up in a castle; when WWI began her castle turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers and the duty of her and her siblings was to talk with wounded soldiers and play games with them. From that, she got the ability to talk to anyone. Her husband's statue has been in this spot since he died. When she died, the funeral motorcade stopped in front of his statue for a minute of silence. Both she and her husband are wearing outfits from the Order of the Garter. She was famous because during WWII, the royal family could’ve fled to their property in Canada since they’re technically the sovereigns of Canada too, but it would’ve been a huge blow to British morale. She said “the girls will not go without me, I will not go without my husband, and the king will not go.” They stayed. Buckingham Palace was bombed three times, taking out her husband’s study and the chapel where she was crowned. The royal family always carried pistols and revolvers in case Germans landed. Reputedly, the Queen Mother drank like a sailor. She was 100 years old when her grandson Prince William came to say goodbye because he was going to university; her goodbye to him was “any good parties, get me invited”. She definitely seems like a character!
After a bombing during the Blitz, the future Queen Elizabeth's parents (Elizabeth and George) went out to see the battered citizens of the east end. The Queen Mother took the lead. because she was the more outgoing one than her husband. On the right is a portrait of the royal family. On the left is firemen working to put out the flames. In the middle, the art depicts the Queen and King talking to civilians.
This half of the sculpture shows more scenes about the Queen Mother, connecting with the people, especially soldiers who fought in the wars.