British Parliament’s clock tower renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

In a ceremony at its foot yesterday, the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which is home to the British Houses of Parliament, was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The decision to rename the tower, popularly but incorrectly known as “Big Ben” (which is actually the name only of the main bell), was taken earlier this year in connection with the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee. Thus the two main towers of the Palace of Westminster are now named, respectively, the Elizabeth Tower and the Victoria Tower, commemorating the two British monarchs who have reigned for more than sixty years.

British Parliament’s Clock Tower to be renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

During a meeting of the House of Commons Committee yesterday it was decided that the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster, which houses the British Houses of Parliament, will be renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Perhaps one should not be surprised that parts of the media report that “Big Ben is to renamed”, but this is wrong; Big Ben is the name only of the clock, not of the tower, whose name is now quite simply the Clock Tower.
The other tower of the Palace of Westminster was originally known as the King’s Tower, but was later renamed the Victoria Tower in honour of Queen Victoria. To me it seems quite fitting for the two towers of the Parliament building to bear the names of the two longest-reigning monarchs in British history.
It has not yet been decided when or in what manner the actual renaming will happen.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to set up permanent home at Kensington Palace in 2013

Several British newspapers report today that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William of Britain and his wife Catherine) will set up their permanent residence in a wing of Kensington Palace from 2013, although it is worth noting that this has apparently not been officially confirmed by the royal court.
The wing in question is Apartment 1A, which was most recently inhabitated by Princess Margaret until her death in 2002. Following her death the apartment was turned over to Historic Royal Palaces, which opened it up for exhibitions in 2004 and uses other parts of it for offices and storage. It is reported that Queen Elizabeth II has agreed to reimburse HRP for their expenses.
Apparently an exhibition planned for 2012 will go ahead and the apartment will therefore only be returned to the Royal Household in September 2012. Following extensive renovation work the Duke and Duchess will probably be able to move in in mid-2013, at which time Prince William will complete his military service in Wales.
Following their wedding in April 2011 the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have used the small Nottingham Cottage, which is adjacent to Kensington Palace, as their London home, but this has only been a temporary solution. According to media reports Prince Harry will take over the cottage in 2013. The office of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will move from St James’s Palace to Kensington Palace in the middle of next year.
Kensington Palace has evolved from a property called Nottingham House, which was purchased by King William III and Queen Mary II in 1689. Extended several times through history it now consists of various wings and buildings which together form the complex structure that is Kensington Palace. The state apartments are open to the public, while other parts serve as homes to royal employees as well as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael.
Prince William himself grew up at Kensington Palace, but not in the apartment which will be his future home. Following the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992 the former moved out, while Diana, Princess of Wales continued to live at Kensington Palace until her death in 1997. Her former apartment has subsequently been turned into offices.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to live at Kensington Palace

The British court yesterday announced that “a property at Kensington Palace” will become the official London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but only as a temporary solution. Prince William and his wife Catherine will continue to live on Anglesey until his stint as a RAF search and rescue pilot is over in 2013 and their office will remain at St James’s Palace.
The court says that a “number of options for longer-term solutions are still being considered” but that “[n]o suitable properties are currently available". Buckingham Palace is generally not considered a place anyone would care to live permanently, while the royal family have long ago given up the right of disposal of Marlborough House, which has earlier served as the official residence of heirs or dowager queens. Clarence House will remain the residence of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall until they ascend the throne. York House, a wing of St James’s Palace which has earlier housed members of the royal family, has now been turned into offices for the Royal Collection.
Prince William grew up at Kensington Palace, which became the official residence of his parents following their marriage in 1981. After they separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996, Diana, Princess of Wales remained at Kensington Palace until her death in 1997. Her apartment is now being used for offices and storage facilities.
Kensington Palace used to be known as “the aunt heap” because of the number of elderly royal relatives living there. Today Queen Elizabeth II’s cousins, the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Prince Michael with their wives, all have apartments at the Palace, while the spacious apartment which was the home of Princess Margaret until her death in 2002 is being turned into exhibition space.

Several exhibitions on royal history this autumn

I have just returned from Stockholm, where the National Museum was busy getting everything in place for their grand exhibition “Härskarkonst – Napoleon, Karl Johan, Alexander” (“Staging Power – Napoleon, Karl Johan, Alexander”), which will be opened by King Carl Gustaf tomorrow in the presence of former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
The exhibition is expected to be the highlight of the Bernadotte bicentenary and will look at Emperor Napoléon I of France’s, King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden and Norway’s and Emperor Alexander I of Russia’s relations to art and how they used the arts to strengthen their own positions. More than 400 works of art – paintings, costumes, jewellery, furniture and more – are included in this exhibition.
Some examples worth mentioning are Jacques-Louis David’s iconic painting of Napoléon crossing the Alps, a leaf from the golden wreath with which Napoléon crowned himself emperor and the magnificent emerald necklace which was given to Stéphanie de Beauharnais when she married the future Grand Duke of Baden in 1805.
A richly illustrated catalogue, in Swedish and English versions, is available from the National Museum from this week. The exhibition will last until 23 January and will thereafter be shown in a modified version at the State Hermitage in St Petersburg.
The National Museum’s exhibition of Bernadotte portraits, “Bernadotter i svart och vitt” (“The Bernadottes in Black and White”), which opened in June, also remains open until 23 January, but on the coming Sunday some of the exhibited photos will be replaced with others (for preservation reasons).
It was earlier reported that the Royal Collection would show an exhibition on Carl XIV Johan’s family life at the Royal Palace in Stockholm from 1 October, but this has been postponed to 2 December.
There will however be several other exhibitions related to royal history to be seen this autumn. The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace has just extended their magnificent “Victoria & Albert: Art & Love”, which was due to close on 31 October, to 5 December.
As earlier mentioned the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Palace in Copenhagen will stage an exhibition to mark the 350th anniversary of the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark-Norway, while Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen will hold the exhibition “Pomp og pragt - Kongemagt og enevælde” (“Pomp and Splendour - Royal Power and Absolute Monarchy”) on the same topic. The exhibition at Frederiksborg will run from 16 October to 20 February, while Rosenborg’s lasts from 16 October to 27 February.
A book related to these two exhibitions has also just been published by Gads Forlag of Copenhagen. Magt og pragt – Enevælde 1660-1848 is written by the noted historians Thomas Lyngby, Søren Mentz and Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen.
On the coming Saturday the Amalienborg Museum in Copenhagen will inaugurate their new exhibition “Den elegante fornyer” (“The Elegant Reformer”), which is a belated commemoration of the centenary of Queen Ingrid’s birth in March. This exhibition will close on the late Queen’s birthday, 28 March 2011. The Danish Royal Collection has by the way just got a new website (external link), which is a significant improvement on the old one.
In Antwerp one will soon be able to see the exhibition “Voor eer en glorie - Napoleon en de juwelen van het Keizerrijk” (“For Honour and Glory - Napoleon and the Empire’s Jewels”) at the Diamond Museum in Queen Astrid Square. This exhibition on the jewellery of the Napoleonic age will be open from 1 October to 31 December.
Here in Oslo the exhibition “Slottet og Linstow – Den nye hovedstadens grunnstein” (“The Palace and Linstow – The Cornerstone of the New Capital”) at the National Museum’s architecture department is now in its closing days. The exhibition, which is the first since 1922 to be devoted to Hans D. F. Linstow, the city planner and architect of the Royal Palace, will close on 10 October.
Meanwhile another branch of the National Museum, the National Gallery, last week opened “Sakrale skatter fra Kreml-museene i Moskva” (“Sacral Treasures from the Kremlin Museums in Moscow”), which shows some 90 icons, textiles and ritual and liturgical objects used in the imperial cathedrals of Russia. This is said to be the most valuable exhibition ever held at the National Museum. It will stay open until 16 January.
The photo show Grand Duchess Stéphanie Napoléon’s emerald necklace, which is normally kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The press photo is copyright the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Various news and impressions from London

I have recently been in London, where there are several good exhibitions worth seeing this summer. The highlight is in my opinion “Victoria & Albert: Art & Love” at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, an excellent exhibition which explores Queen Victoria’s and Prince Albert’s interest in the arts – what the arts meant to them and what they meant to the arts. The exhibition is on until 31 October.
At the Victoria and Albert Museum there is currently an exhibition on Princess Grace of Monaco, titled “Grace Kelly: Style Icon”, which shows dresses, hats, shoes, handbags and jewellery worn by the film star-turned-princess. It closes on 26 September.
Also at the V&A was the exhibition “Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill” about Walpole’s neo-Gothic country house, which will soon re-open to the public at last after years of restoration work. This exhibition ended on 4 July.
In London this week and the last weekend have been marked by the so-called “Master Paintings Week”, which concluded with great art auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and other auction houses and art dealers. Much great art to see at the sales exhibitions, including works by Rubens, Franz Hals and Turner – a landscape by the latter was sold for nearly £ 28 million to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Also on show at Christie’s was the Althorp Attic Sale – mostly junk sorted out by Lord Spencer while cleaning up the attic of Althorp House, but also some interesting items. To accompany the sale Lord Spencer has also written a richly illustrated article for this month’s issue of The World of Interiors.
Last Thursday (1 July) was the 49th birthday of Lord Spencer’s late sister Diana, Princess of Wales. Daily Mail ran a picture of their sisters, Lady Jane McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, looking distinctively elderly, the youngest one entirely grey-haired, which made one reflect on the passing of time. Outside Kensington Palace several floral tributes to the Princess had been left at the gates (second photo).
Also worth noting on the art scene is the announcement that Charles Saatchi upon his retirement will donate the Saatchi Gallery and its collection of contemporary art – some 200 works estimated at £ 25 million – to the British nation. The complete permanent collection will be shown in 2012 at the gallery, which is located at the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea (first photo), and may thereafter also be lent to other galleries. Mr Saatchi has decided that upon his retirement the gallery’s name will change to the Museum of Contemporary Art, London (MOCA London).

Upcoming exhibition on Victoria and Albert

Between 19 March and 31 October next year the Queen’s Gallery in London will show a large exhibition on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, titled “Victoria & Albert: Art & Love”. The years between their engagement in 1839 and the Prince Consort’s death in 1861 will be at the focus of the exhibition, which will also highlight the importance art played in their relationship. The Times has more:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6876853.ece