After that we took the tour through the Queen's Apartments, where apparently Queen Mary II (King William III's wife) lived. Here again you will see a lot of luxury. We saw a lot of rooms like the public diningroom, the Queen's audience chamber, her bedroom, a gallery and a room for the Queen's personal attendants. Everything in the rooms looks exactly like it would have looked when Queen Mary II resided here (without all the tourists walking around there of course :+) ) From here we walked into the King's Apartments, which were all built by King William III's order. Our tour started at the Guard chamber, where lots of the weapons used in this period of time were on display. In this chamber the guards of the King would reside, protecting the King from people who might want to harm him somehow. As the guards had a day off, we could walk into the apartments and have a look around :+). We saw several beautiful decorated rooms like there are the the King's Bedrooms and the Closet or private study. We walked downstairs via the King's private stairway, which let into the King's private rooms (I would think his bedroom was a private place too, but apparently people thought different about it in these ages). The King's private rooms exist of some closets where the King could withdraw, but also we saw an Orangery where the orange trees and some other exotic trees from the gardens were kept during winter. In all these rooms there are a lot of paintings etcetera on display, just like it would have looked when King Willliam III lived here. In 1986 there was a big fire in the King's apartments, which started in one of the grace-and-favour apartments (these are rent-free apartments, granted to people in recognition for their service to the Crown or Country. The fire destroyed several of the rooms (for instance the Cartoon chamber and the King's privy chamber). All these rooms are now restored and brought back in the original state they would have been around 1700. It took 6 years to restore all the rooms and their inventory and in 1992 the King's Apartments were opened for the public again. There is a special gallery where pictures and information about the fire can be found. When you see the rooms now and the pictures taken just after the fire, I can tell you that the restorators and conservators did a great job. |
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We left Hampton
Court's chapel through the Royal
Pew, where we entered the