In the Footsteps of The Young Victoria - Young Victoria p.2

Details

Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Saturday, 19 December 2009 04:23

Written by Laura Blum

Windsor Castle
The world’s biggest and oldest occupied castle dates back nearly 1,000 years, to William the Conqueror. Its 15-acre sprawl contains a royal palace that served as Queen Victoria’s principal residence. The Blue Room has the dubious distinction of being where Prince Albert died. Visitors can tour the Castle precincts, the State Apartments, Queen Mary's dolls house, St George's Chapel and the Albert Memorial Chapel. During the winter months the route includes five more rooms, called the Semi-State Rooms.
West of London
Via Windsor/Eton Rail, Windsor, UK
+44 (0)20 7766 7304
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
Osborne House
Tucked away on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House was the perfect place for Queen Victoria to skulk following Prince Albert’s death. Albert himself had designed the manse, with a nod to an Italian Renaissance palazzo. After its completion in 1851, it served the royal couple as a summer home and rural getaway. Victoria favored its “cheerful and unpalacelike rooms” over Windsor’s gloom, but after her death (at Osborne) her heirs fobbed it off on the state. Today it – and its museum dedicated to England’s longest-reigning monarch -- is the charge of the English Heritage, and can be visited from spring through autumn. 
East Cowles, Isle of Wight
+44 (0) 870 333 1181
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.14479
 
Osterly Park and House
Posing as Buckingham Palace, Osterly Park House made a fine sitting room and ante room for Emily Blunt’s Victoria. It began life as a manor house in the 1570s, among other then fashionable country retreats west of London. In the 18th century, architect Robert Adam gave it a neo-classical makeover, prompting art historian Horace Walpole to deadpan that its drawing room was "worthy of Eve before the fall."  Now under the care of the National Trust, the House is open to the public from March to November, with additional dates for other Osterly Park sites.
Jersey Road, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 4RB
+44 1 494 755 566
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-osterleypark
 
Hampton Court Palace
Southwest London’s Hampton Court was built under King Henry VIII in 1514. Queen Victoria put her stamp on it with a nip/tuck to the Great Hall, but, like other kings and queens after George II, never called it home. Questers are invited into the palace and out to its 60-acre grounds, where the 17th-century Wilderness Garden maze awaits their confounding.
Surrey  KT8 9AU
+44 (0)20 3166 6000
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Lancaster House
The movie set for the Coronation, Lancaster House is every bit as over-the-top as the venue it fronted for. This wasn’t its first gig as Buckingham Palace; National Treasure: The Book of Secrets was. Gossip has it that Queen Victoria once commented to her host at London’s finest townhouse, "I have come from my House to your Palace.” Ground broke on the neo-classical residence in 1825, three centuries after the site was joined with St. James's Palace complex. Today HM Government uses Lancaster House for official receptions. Like St. James’s Palace, it’s closed to the public, but worth catching from the outside if you’re in the West End neighborhood.
London SW1A 1AA
+44 (0)20 7766 7304
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
Kensington Palace
Victoria’s birthplace was where she was told on the predawn of June 20, 1837, that her uncle, the king, had died and that she was now queen. Until then the almost-18-year-old had slept on a cot by her mother, as part of an overprotective hysteria known as the Kensington System. Yet memories fade, and in 1899, the Queen celebrated her 80th birthday by opening The State Apartments to the public. The restored walls were decked out with pictures and exhibits, especially of her reign.
5 Prince Of Wales Terrace
London W8 4PX
+44 (0) 20 7937 9561
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/building/stateapartments.aspx

Balmoral Castle
Adored by Queen Victoria and purchased by Prince Albert, Scotland’s Balmoral Estate houses the castle whose foundation stone she set in 1853. Balmoral Castle has since served as the private residence of The Queen, and HM and her family summer there in August and September. Beyond looking pretty, Balmoral Estate does its part for the environment and local Aberdeenshire economy. The 65-acre Estate grounds, gardens and the Castle Ballroom welcome visitors from early April through July.
The Estates Office, Balmoral
Ballater, Aberdeenshire
Scotland AB35 5TB
+44 1 3397 42534
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.balmoralcastle.com

For a related FFTrav story go to: http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=359:emily-blunt-the-young-victoria&catid=31:general

• < Prev
• Next >