Insights and behind the scenes from our palaces
Mistletoe in the Hampton Court Palace Gardens
20 December 2019
One of the most popular questions posed to our gardeners during winter concerns strange lumps of weed growing in trees in the East Front garden. These random and odd-looking growths are in fact clumps of mistletoe.
New life for the glasshouse at Hillsborough Castle
20 December 2019
It's been an exceptionally busy year for the gardens team at Hillsborough Castle, with the doors to the extensive estate thrown open to the public every day for the first time. Time has also been found to transform the glasshouse, a modest but attractive corner of the gardens that had long been overlooked.
The art of botanical watercolours: meet the Hampton Court Florilegium Society
06 December 2019
One of the newer collections in the Historic Royal Palaces archives is a large group of botanical watercolours, on both paper and vellum, painted by the Hampton Court Florilegium society. The society aims to establish an archive of botanically accurate paintings and drawings of the plants that are growing in the palace gardens each year.
Festooned with Mystery: Wall Paintings at the Banqueting House
07 November 2019
An investigation into some mysterious mural paintings in the Banqueting House took place with a scaffold built for conservators to inspect the often overlooked wall paintings just beneath the magnificent ceiling.
The colourful history of the cornices and corbels: Secrets of a State Bed
06 November 2019
As conservation work continues on Queen Caroline's State bed, Conservator Beatrice Farmer describes the small details and considerations involved in conserving the textile elements of the bed such as the cornices and corbels - from how to remove old patches to finding the best materials and colours to match the original item.
Excavations at the Tower of London's chapel
21 October 2019
Historic Buildings Curator Alfred Hawkins explains the process of archaeological excavations, and their importance in expanding our current understanding of historic sites like the Tower of London.
Hampton Court's worst enemy: how we deal with the mealybug
21 October 2019
At Hampton Court we look after 60 acres of formal gardens and hundreds of thousands of plants, making these mealybug pests some of our worst enemies.
Works of art on paper: a few stories behind the images
01 October 2019
With HRP’s collection of works of art on paper, people usually think that our collection is mostly made up of views of the palaces and fusty portraits of Kings and Queens, and often, that is largely what it is. But the truth about many objects is that even if they are quite mundane in themselves, it is the stories behind the image which makes these items so fascinating.
A Real Royal Visit: Princess Mary at Hillsborough Castle, 1928
20 September 2019
Princess Mary was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, and visited Hillsborough Castle as a royal guest in 1928. Beatrice Meecham from the Curators team explores this important royal visit.