The Queen's Houses

by Alan Titchmarsh

  Royal occasions at Windsor were once more enormous, lavish affairs, like the three-day wedding of Edward VII’s niece, The Princess of Albany, to Prince Alexander of Teck in 1904, with visitors and their entourages dispersed among the castle’s many bedrooms and entertained to vast meals.

  An enlarged replica of one of the miniature books created for Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House in Windsor Castle

  On the death of Edward VII in 1910 nine monarchs and innumerable princes and princelings accompanied The King’s funeral cortege as it was pulled by naval ratings from Windsor station to St George’s Chapel. There he was interred, his terrier Caesar included in his effigy, carved beneath his feet.

  George V, a stickler for order, punctuality, stamp collecting and high standards, kept a staff of over 600 busy whilst at Windsor. Queen Mary was instrumental in the acquisition or reacquisition of artworks and pieces of furniture for the state rooms. Her visits to country houses were anticipated by their owners with a degree of apprehension since The Queen was famous for ‘admiring’ various trinkets and bibelots that the owners would then feel obliged to bestow upon her as a gift. Wily chatelaines would put away their most treasured possessions to avoid embarrassment. In acknowledgement of The Queen’s interest in interior decoration Princess Marie-Louise, her husband’s first cousin, commissioned the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to design a vast miniature neo-classical house for her, the largest ‘dolls’ house’ in the world. It was completed in 1924. Now one of the great attractions of the castle, it contains over 1000 objects, all crafted at 1:12 scale by the leading designers of the 1920s, and includes hot and cold running water, flushing lavatories, working lifts, electricity and a pretty formal garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll that slides out from underneath the house.

  The Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, was inducted into the Order of the Garter in 1911 and a Garter service was held once more at St George’s Chapel, the first since the reign of George III. In deference to the anti-German sentiment following the First World War, in 1917 George V decreed the name of the royal family should change from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert’s Ducal House, to the House of Windsor. At the same time innumerable royal relations with German surnames anglicized their names too and renounced their German titles, so the Battenbergs became the Mountbattens. In 1960 ‘Mountbatten’ was joined to Windsor by royal proclamation to create the surname Mountbatten-Windsor for all the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The first time it was used officially was in 1973, in the marriage register, when Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips.

  Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House being packed up for delivery to Windsor

  It was during George V’s reign that St George’s Chapel was discovered to be dangerously unsafe: the foundations were moving and the huge beams spanning the roof above the vaults were failing. A ten-year programme of restoration was undertaken, finally completed in 1930. At the same time, due to the generosity of a Putney builder, the 76 heraldic beasts, which had adorned the parapets of the chapel from Tudor times until the 1680s, were replaced, those on the north side representing the House of York, those on the south the House of Lancaster. Both George V and, in due course, Queen Mary, were buried in St George’s Chapel.

  The heraldic Queen’s Beasts, here celebrated in stamp form: the lion of England, the griffin of Edward III, the falcon of the Plantagenets, the black bull of Clarence, the white lion of Mortimer, the yale of Beaufort, the white greyhound of Richmond, the red dragon of Wales, the unicorn of Scotland, and the white horse of Hanover.

  Edward VIII’s short reign in 1936 had little impact on the castle. His preferred country residence was Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park.

  St George’s Chapel, Windsor

  Originally a folly built in the 1750s for the younger son of George II, it was extended by Wyatville for use as a hunting lodge and also, with a battery of 31 guns, for royal salutes, with a resident bombardier. In 1911 it was converted into a house and in 1929 given to The Prince of Wales, after which it became a fashionable venue for parties. It was there that Edward VIII had his fateful final meetings with the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, and signed the Instrument of Abdication in December 1936. The document was also signed by his brothers, The Dukes of York, Gloucester and Kent. The following day he broadcast to the nation from the castle: ‘you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love’.

  It was Edward’s wish to return to live at Fort Belvedere after his marriage to Wallis Simpson, but this was not allowed. However, George VI proposed that his brother should adopt the title ‘Duke of Windsor’ and this title was created for him in March 1937. He and Wallis are buried in the Royal Burial Ground beside the mausoleum at Frogmore.

  The Duke of Windsor had included in his abdication speech the phrase, ‘my brother … has one matchless blessing, enjoyed by so many of you and not bestowed on me – a happy home with his wife and children’. His brother, as Duke of York, had taken out a lease on 145 Piccadilly and this was the family’s London house until his accession as George VI. It was destroyed during the Blitz, its ruins subsequently demolished to make way for the InterContinental Hotel. The couple’s country house was initially White Lodge in Richmond Park, from which they moved to Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park in 1932. Even after George VI’s accession in 1936 the family preferred the relative cosiness of this home to the castle. However, in May 1940, with the threat of a German invasion a real possibility following the retreat from Dunkirk (the sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard in Windsor), Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were moved to Windsor Castle for the duration of the war. The castle became a fortress once again, its dungeons pressed into service as air-raid shelters, its paintings and chandeliers removed, the furniture shrouded and glass-fronted cabinets turned to face the walls. Three hundred bombs fell in Windsor Great Park during the war, but mercifully not one of them fell on the castle itself.

  George VI and his family at ‘The Little House’, or Welsh Cottage, at Windsor in the 1930s

  Princess Elizabeth and her mother Queen Elizabeth at the Windsor Horse Show, 1935

  The King and Queen lived at Buckingham Palace during the week, returning to Windsor Castle on Friday afternoons when the Royal Standard was raised above the Round Tower to denote that the monarch was once more in residence. The Princesses were schooled at the castle, living in the Lancaster Tower, and Princess Elizabeth, to help prepare for her future role, continued to receive lessons in Constitutional History from Henry Marten, then Vice-Provost of Eton College.

  There was no central heating, merely small and ineffective electric stoves in the bedrooms and log fires in the sitting rooms. In winter the children’s nanny described it as a feat of endurance to travel the icy corridors between the heated rooms. Entertainment was provided by amateur theatricals and pantomimes on the stage Queen Victoria had erected in the Waterloo Room (one of the performances was watched by a young Prince Philip, at home on leave from the navy), outings with the Girl Guides in Windsor Park and parties with the young Guards officers stationed at the castle. Princess Elizabeth was also instructed in carriage driving and in two consecutive years, 1943 (also the first year she rode out with a hunt) and 1944, she won first prize at the Royal Windsor Horse Show with her own pony and trap. On her sixteenth birthday she registered at the Labour Exchange in Windsor and subsequently joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), commuting from the castle to her detachment in Camberley every day. The sisters’ incarceration in the castle ended in May 1945 when they were taken to Buckingham Palace to join in the celebrations of Victory in Europe Day. After years of blackout, the castle was floodlit to celebrate the end of hostilities.

  Princess Elizabeth and the Welsh Cottage

  In 1948 George VI revived the formal Garter installation with a full ceremonial investitu
re at Windsor – the first time it had been seen since the reign of George III in 1805. It was exactly 600 years since the foundation of the Order in 1348 and it has been an annual event ever since. Apart from the annual round, when the court moved to Windsor Castle for Easter and again for the Ascot races and Garter Day – always the Monday of Royal Ascot Week – the royal family at this time reverted to using Royal Lodge as their country retreat.

  The reign of King George VI was regarded as being both a triumph and a stabilizing influence during the troubled years of the Second World War, but The King was left weak and exhausted. After intermittent illness George VI died at Sandringham on 6 February 1952, aged 56. The Sebastopol Bell in the Round Tower at Windsor tolled at one-minute intervals, one toll for each year of The King’s life. He was buried at St George’s Chapel, as were his father and grandfather before him.

  The royal family today

  The Queen and Prince Philip have made the castle their weekend retreat – their real home, in effect – and an escape from the interminable bustle of London. From time to time, however, state visits take place at Windsor Castle rather than Buckingham Palace, and a number of investitures are also held there. The Queen has hosted over 100 state visits of monarchs or heads of state, including six French presidents, three German presidents and three US presidents. The 105th state visit of The Queen’s reign – of President Higgins of Ireland and his wife Sabina – to Windsor Castle in April 2014 was an historic occasion, the first official state visit of an Irish head of state. It was a return match after her successful visit to Ireland in 2011. The traditional state banquet is always held in St George’s Hall and a table 55.5 metres (182 feet) long is used to seat up to 160 guests.

  The Queen has left a lasting legacy to the castle. It is not something she would have undertaken had it not been forced upon her, but it is every bit as important to the fabric of the castle as the work of her illustrious predecessors, Edward III, Charles II and George IV. At about 11.30 on the morning of 20 November 1992 in the Private Chapel, picture specialists working on paintings, which had been dismounted during a programme of rewiring, smelled burning. Simultaneously, workmen on the roof of the Waterloo Chamber at the other end of the St George’s Hall spotted white smoke pouring from roof vents. The castle, built by so many different monarchs over so many centuries and containing priceless treasures and historic interiors, was on fire. Almost certainly started by a spotlight overheating and setting fire to curtains in the Private Chapel, the fire took hold and spread quickly.

  The Windsor Castle fire, 1992

  It was to burn for 15 hours and was fought by over 200 firefighters, using more than 30 fire engines from 7 different brigades. It destroyed a total of 115 rooms, including many of the most sumptuous reception rooms in the castle. The extraordinary salvage operation that swung into action as the fire raged, involving the Household Cavalry from nearby Combermere Barracks with their Bedford trucks, fleets of hired removal vans and another army of palace staff and residents, including several members of the royal family, meant that very few of the many thousands of paintings and other priceless fixtures and fittings were lost.

  The Queen visits her home after the 1992 fire

  The fire spread widely through the labyrinth of interconnected roof spaces and after battling an increasingly fierce conflagration – the heat at the foot of the Brunswick Tower was later calculated to have reached an astonishing 820°C (1508°F) – the fire brigade commander decided the best course was to hold the fire at a certain line and allow it to burn itself out. But the firefighters’ attempts to douse the flames had a major effect later. The thousands of gallons of water used in the attempt to save the building soaked into the ancient, porous fabric of the walls and added to the weight of ceilings, which later collapsed and made the task of restoration and repair much more difficult.

  Committees were at once set up chaired by The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales to oversee the general restoration of the destroyed interiors and to decide on whom should be the architects and designers of any new work. Debate raged about restoration and reinstatement of the old versus the opportunity for entirely new and contemporary interiors. After the salvage teams from English Heritage had done their work it was discovered that a remarkable number of interiors had survived in a state that could be reasonably restored. Since the furniture originally designed for those interiors had also been saved, the decision was taken to restore, where possible, Wyatville’s interiors for George IV. Where the fire had destroyed the fabric beyond repair – the roof of St George’s Hall and the Private Chapel, for example – the fabric would be renewed entirely.

  It was nevertheless decided that the designs for these two areas should stay within the Gothic craft tradition, so much a part of the castle’s history, and the new roof of St George’s Hall is an enormous green oak hammer-beam structure – the largest constructed since the Middle Ages. It gives this vast space a much more impressive feel than Wyatville’s shallow, oppressive, wood-grained plaster roof of 1828. The Private Chapel – the original seat of the fire – was given a new circulation space. An octagonal two-storey structure, with a delicate array of laminated oak columns rising to form rib vaults (designed by computer technology), now support a central lantern. The effect, described as ‘organo-Gothic’, is a triumph of modern design. A new Private Chapel was built, with stained glass bearing images of Windsor Castle rising anew from the fire, based on designs drawn up by The Duke of Edinburgh.

  Over the years George IV’s interiors and the later ones of the 1850s had degraded with each revamp of the curtains, paintwork or upholstery and the original vibrancy of the colours had become muted. With the evidence from watercolours of the original interiors and archaeological work on surviving fragments the decision was taken to recreate as far as possible the original designs. There is no doubt the restored interiors are stunning through the interplay of colour and the extensive use of gilding.

  There were other pluses too. The warren of staff bedrooms on the upper floors and the accretions of assorted buildings that had choked Edward III’s Kitchen Court had been destroyed. The opportunity was taken to modernize the accommodation and to clear the jumble of buildings in the Kitchen Court, which revealed the fourteenth-century gateways and stonework of Richard III. A new building was inserted into the space, which allowed the old walls to be seen. In the Great Kitchen, the original timbers of the lantern were uncovered and in doing so the realization dawned that the kitchen was the one that had been built in 1259. In continuous use for nearly 800 years, it is one of the oldest still-working kitchens in the world. The fourteenth-century vaulted undercroft beneath St George’s Hall has emerged once more from a warren of subdivisions and gloss paint.

  The Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, which was completely restored after the fire in 1992

  Managed by the officers of the Royal Household with the royal family constantly consulted – after all this is The Queen’s ‘home’ – the whole extraordinarily complicated exercise was completed in five years, within the time allowed and under budget. On the site of the fire in the old Private Chapel the reredos behind the altar was restored and reinstated and now bears an inscription, ‘The Fire of 20th November 1992 Began Here’, and goes on to record that the work was finished on 20 November 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of the wedding of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. The restored Windsor Castle helped to lay to rest some of the ghosts of five years before when The Queen had spoken of 1992 as being her annus horribilis, ‘not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure’.

  The castle has witnessed a number of poignant family events since the fire. In June 1999 Prince Edward was married to Sophie Rhys-Jones at St George’s Chapel. After the ceremony they rode in an open carriage to the reception for 550 guests in St George’s Hall. Over 200 million viewed the wedding on television.

  The newly married Duke and Duchess of Cornwall pose for their official wedding photograph with their children and parents.
From left to right: Prince Harry, Prince William, Laura and Tom Parker-Bowles. Front: The Queen, Prince Philip and Bruce Shand in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, 2005.

  On 9 February 2002 The Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, died and her funeral was held at Windsor on 15 February, the fiftieth anniversary of the funeral of her father, George VI. After resting overnight in the nave of the chapel and following the service in the choir, attended by 37 members of the royal family (including The Queen Mother, who was determined to be there), Princess Margaret’s coffin was taken to the waiting hearse as the Curfew bell tolled and pipers played the lament. While the 400 mourners had tea in St George’s Hall the hearse left the castle by the King Henry VIII Gate en route to Slough Crematorium. The princess’s ashes were buried with her father in the Royal Vault. Two weeks later, on 30 March 2002, The Queen Mother died at Royal Lodge in Windsor Park, aged 101. Her funeral service was held at Westminster Abbey on 9 April and her coffin taken by road to Windsor and interred with her husband and daughter in the Royal Vault.

  On a happier note, on 23 April 2008 Prince William was announced as the 1000th member of the Order of the Garter. He was invested by The Queen as a Royal Knight Companion at Windsor on 16 June. Three years later, in 2011, The Duke of Edinburgh turned 90 and on 14 June a service was held in St George’s Chapel followed by a champagne reception at the castle for 750 people.