The Royal Mews is an important branch of the Lord Chamberlain's Office and provides road transport for The Queen and members of the Royal Family by both horse-drawn carriage and motor car. It is also one of the finest working stables still in existence, responsible for the training of the Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays, the horses that pull the royal carriages. State vehicles are housed and maintained at the Royal Mews. They include the carriages used for royal and State occasions, such as State Visits, weddings and the State Opening of Parliament. Carriages from the Royal Mews are also used on roughly 50 occasions each year to convey newly appointed High Commissioners and Ambassadors from their official residence to Buckingham Palace to present their credentials to The Queen. Since 1843 the daily messenger Brougham has set out from the Royal Mews to collect and deliver post between Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace. The most dazzling of all coaches housed in the Royal Mews is the Gold State Coach, which has been used at every coronation since that of George IV in 1821. The latest coach to join the collection of royal coaches is The Diamond Jubilee State Coach (pictured above) which was built to commemorate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The Royal Mews is one of the finest working stables anywhere in the world and home to the royal collection of historic coaches and carriages, the stables are still to this day responsible for all road travel arrangements for Her Majesty The Queen. The Royal Mews in London offers regular guided tours where visitors can learn the history of the Mews and its association with the British monarchy. Tourist Information The Royal Mews
Buckingham Palace London, SW1W 1QH You can visit the Royal Mews at your leisure using the complimentary audio tour, which lasts approximately 45 minutes. Between April - October guided tours also depart at regular intervals throughout the day. Admission Times 1 April – 31 October Open daily 10:00-5:00 (last admission 4:15) 1-30 November Monday to Saturday 10:00-4:00 (last admission 3:15) 2 February - 31 March 2015 Monday to Saturday 10:00-4:00 (last admission 3:15) Admission Prices (Includes Audio Guide) Adult £8.75 Over 60/Student (with valid ID) £8.00 Under 17/Disabled £5.40 Under 5 Free Family (2 adults, 3 under 17) £22.90 I would highly suggest you get a combo ticket. This gives you combined admission to the Royal Mews and the adjacent Queen's Gallery. The Prices are below: Combined visit: The Royal Mews and The Queen's Gallery Adult £16.75 Over 60/Student (with valid ID) £15.25 Under 17/Disabled £9.30 Under 5 Free Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s) £42.80 For more information including current closures and opening times and all other information, check out the official website through the Royal Collection Trust, below. Cheers!
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Built by Messrs Harland & Wolff of Belfast in 1936, Anne Chamberlain, wife of the then Prime Minister launched Belfast on St Patrick’s Day 1938. After fitting out and builder’s trials HMS Belfast was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 August 1939 under the command of Captain G A Scott DSO RN. Designed for the protection of trade and offensive action she was immediately called into service patrolling the northern waters in efforts to impose a maritime blockade on Germany. However, disaster struck after only two months at sea when HMS Belfast hit a magnetic mine. There were few casualties but the damage to her hull was so severe she was out of action for three years. On rejoining the home fleet in 1942 she was still the largest and most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy and most importantly she was equipped with the most advanced radar systems. HMS Belfast was immediately called into action and played a crucial role in protecting the arctic convoys, Russia’s supply route throughout the war. Most notably in her role during the Battle of North Cape which saw the sinking of the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst and the loss of all but 36 of her 1,963 crew. HMS Belfast remained protecting the arctic convoys until 1944 when she spent five weeks supporting the D-Day landings and reportedly fired one of the first shots on D-Day itself. After the Second World War HMS Belfast played an active role in the Korean War from 1950-1952 working with other Allied Forces to support the retreating American and South Korean troops. Her final years were spent performing peace-keeping duties until she was retired from service in 1963. As early as 1967 the Imperial War Museum had been investigating the possibility of preserving a Second World War cruiser. This led to the formation of a trust, headed up by one of HMS Belfast’s former captains Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles. After some years the trust was successful and HMS Belfast was brought to London opening to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971. Today she is the last remaining vessel of her type – one of the largest and most powerful light cruisers ever built. She is permanently docked on the south bank of the Thames in between Tower Bridge and London Bridge. Tourist Information HMS Belfast The Queen's Walk London, SE1 2JH Phone: 020 7940 6300 Opening Hours 3 November to 28 February 10am – 5pm (last admission 4pm) 1 March to 31 October 10am – 6pm (last admission 5pm) They are closed 24, 25, and 26 December. During adverse weather, it may become necessary for certain ladders and upper decks on HMS Belfast to be closed at short notice. Please ask a member of staff on board for more information. Occasionally they may need to close early – any planned closures will be noted on the official website. Tickets Adults £15.50 Child (under 16) Free Concessions (Senior, Student, Disabled) £12.40 IWM Members Free Admission prices excluding voluntary donation: Adult £14.05, Concessions £11.25 *HMS Belfast is part of Imperial War Museums, which is a registered charity. Your ticket price includes a 10% voluntary donation. By making a donation, you will be making a valuable contribution to the care and conservation of this historic site. And, if you are a UK tax payer, your donation will enable us to claim Gift Aid on your entire admission payment. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult! For more information including current opening times, closures, exhibits and what to see, check out the official website below. Cheers!
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin's Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery. It has been expanded twice since then. The National Portrait Gallery also has three regional outposts at Beningbrough Hall, Bodelwyddan Castle and Montacute House. It is unconnected to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, with which its remit overlaps. The gallery is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The gallery houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist. The collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture. One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare (pictured left) although there is some uncertainty about whether the painting actually is of the playwright. Not all of the portraits are exceptional artistically, although there are self-portraits by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other British artists of note. Some, such as the group portrait of the participants in the Somerset House Conference of 1604, are important historical documents in their own right. Often, the curiosity value is greater than the artistic worth of a work, as in the case of the anamorphic portrait of Edward VI by William Scrots, Patrick Branwell Brontë's painting of his sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, or a sculpture of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in medieval costume. Portraits of living figures were allowed from 1969. In addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing selection of contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists and hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition. The National Portrait Gallery was formally established on 2 December 1856, and amongst its founder Trustees were Stanhope as Chairman, Macaulay, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere, a former Trustee of the National Gallery, who offered to the nation the so-called Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which became the first picture to enter the Gallery's collection. On Ellesmere's death in 1857 Carlyle became a Trustee. The National Portrait Gallery was established with the criteria that the Gallery was to be about history, not about art, and about the status of the sitter, rather than the quality or character of a particular image considered as a work of art. This criterion is still used by the Gallery today when deciding which works enter the National Portrait Gallery's collection. Originally, it was decided by the Trustees that "No portrait of any person still living, or deceased less that 10 years, shall be admitted by purchase, donation, or bequest, except only in the case of the reigning Sovereign, and of his or her Consort". This rule changed in 1969 in order to encourage a policy of admitting living sitters. For the first 40 years, the gallery was housed in various locations in London. The first 13 years were spent at 29 Great George Street, Westminster. There, the collection increased in size from 57 to 208 items, and the number of visitors from 5,300 to 34,500. In 1869, the collection moved to Exhibition Road and buildings managed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Following a fire in those buildings, the collection was moved in 1885, this time to the Bethnal Green Museum. This location was ultimately unsuitable due to its distance from the West End, condensation and lack of waterproofing. Following calls for a new location to be found, the government accepted an offer of funds from the philanthropist William Henry Alexander. Alexander donated £60,000 followed by another £20,000, and also chose the architect, Ewan Christian. The government provided the new site, St Martin's Place, adjacent to the National Gallery, and £16,000. The buildings, faced in Portland stone, were constructed by Shillitoe & Son. Both the architect, Ewan Christian, and the gallery's first director, George Scharf, died shortly before the new building was completed. The gallery opened at its new location on 4 April 1896. The site has since been expanded twice. The first extension, in 1933, was funded by Lord Duveen, and resulted in the wing by architect Sir Richard Allison that runs along Orange Street. The collections of the National Portrait Gallery were stored at Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire during the Second World War, along with pieces from the Royal Collection and paintings from Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster. The second extension was funded by Sir Christopher Ondaatje and a £12m Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and was designed by London based architects Edward Jones and Jeremy Dixon. The Ondaatje Wing opened in 2000 and occupies a narrow space of land between the two 19th-century buildings of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, and is notable for its immense, two-story escalator that takes visitors to the earliest part of the collection, the Tudor portraits. The Duchess of Cambridge became Patron of the National Portrait Gallery in January 2012. The Duchess’s Patronage reflects her personal interests in the arts and will help the Gallery to continue to reach wider audiences and to encourage more young people to engage with the Collection. On Wednesday 8 February 2012 the Duchess made her first public visit to the Gallery to view the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition. Tourist Information National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place London, WC2H 0HE Phone: 020 7306 0055 The National Portrait Gallery is adjacent to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to the right. Entry to the building is free of charge, although there are ticket prices for special exhibitions that go on throughout the year. Disabled visitors are entitled to visit the Gallery at the Concessionary rates and their carers are admitted free of charge. Opening Hours Saturday-Wednesday: 10:00am- 6:00pm Thursday-Friday: 10:00am- 9:00pm Closing commences at 5:50pm and 8:50pm. Mondays - Floors 1 and 2 open at 11:00. Ticket Desk closes/last admission to paying exhibitions 45 minutes or 1 hour before Gallery closes (see exhibition pages for details). For more information of the gallery including current exhibitions, offers, opening times, etc. click on the link below to the official website! The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The Gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection is free of charge. It is the fourth most visited art museum in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, an insurance broker and patron of the arts, in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two-thirds of the collection. The resulting collection is small in size, compared with many European national galleries, but encyclopaedic in scope; most major developments in Western painting "from Giotto to Cézanne" are represented with important works. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case. The present building, the third to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins from 1832–38. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, as the building has been expanded piecemeal throughout its history. Wilkins's building was often criticised for its perceived aesthetic deficiencies and lack of space; the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, an extension to the west by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, is a notable example of Postmodernist architecture in Britain. The current Director of the National Gallery is Nicholas Penny. All major traditions of Western European painting are represented from the artists of late medieval and Renaissance Italy to the French Impressionists.
Museum Information
The National Gallery Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN Phone: +44 (0)20 7747 2885 Museum Hours Daily 10am – 6pm Friday 10am – 9pm ADMISSION IS FREE! For more information about the current collections, special events and exhibitions, additional tourist information, etc. check out the official website below! |
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