topic Re: Windsor Castle in Among Friends

Windsor Castle

MorningLover — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 16:40:43 GMT

Town and Country:

Windsor Castle’s East Terrace Garden Opens to the Public for the First Time in 40 Years

The lush space has been closed to non-royals for decades.

Ever wanted to wander Queen Elizabeth's private gardens? Well, you're now in luck. On Saturday August 8, Windsor Castle's formal East Terrace Gardens will open to us commoners for the first time in decades.

The East Terrace Gardens are stunning part of Windsor Castle, one of the Queen's official residences and where she's spent the last few months during the coronavirus lockdown. Now that the Queen and Prince Philip moved to Balmoral Castle, the royal family's Scottish summer estate, the Queen opened up her gardens to visitors during August and September weekends.

These large, formal gardens have a stunning view of Windsor Castle's east façade. There you'll also find 3,500 rose bushes planted in a geometric pattern around a fountain, along with clipped domes of yew lining the perimeter.

Not only is the garden visually captivating, it also has a rich history. The East Terrace Garden was commissioned by King George IV and constructed between 1824 and 1826. The original purpose of the new addition was to improve the view from the royal apartments along the castle's east side and replace a bowling green made for Charles II in the 1670s.

The new garden was adorned for a King, indeed, with 34 orange trees, sent to George IV by French King Charles X. Statues were also brought from the Privy Gardens at Hampton Court, including a set of four bronze figures by Hubert Le Sueur, made for Charles I in the 1630s, which remain in the garden today.

Over the years, the garden has been sporadically opened to the public. While it was mostly private during its early years, King William IV allowed access during his reign, and this precedent continued through most of the 19th century. In the early 20th century, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra even held large garden parties there.

While it has been kept private for most of the her time as monarch, Queen Elizabeth has her own personal attachment to the East Terrace Garden. During World War II, when she was known as Princess Elizabeth, the Queen and Princess Margaret turned a portion of the space into a vegetable garden. They each cultivated a small plot of land and grew tomatoes, sweetcorn, and dwarf beans.

In 1971, Prince Philip spearheaded the garden's redesign. He rearranged many of the flowerbeds and commissioned and personally designed new bronze lotus fountain for the garden's center. Since then, the East Terrace Garden has served as a backdrop for several official portraits of the Queen, including a 1997 photograph by Patrick Lichfield and a 2016 portrait by Annie Leibovitz. If you want to visit this historic royal site, you better hurry. The grounds will close back up again at the end of September.

Re: Windsor Castle

MorningLover — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 16:43:03 GMT

Special access will be given to visitors at Windsor Castle in August to the Moat Garden beneath the iconic Round Tower

Re: Windsor Castle

Witchy Woman — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 16:46:02 GMT

@MorningLover

Beyond words! Cannot imagine the hours it takes to keep it looking so beautiful.

I want to be way up high in one of those windows looking out

Thanks for posting!

Re: Windsor Castle

Kachina624 — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 16:52:07 GMT

I'm afraid we Americans will miss it this year, since GB won't let us in.

Re: Windsor Castle

wildcat fan — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:00:09 GMT

Would love to see it in person, but know that's not going to happen.

Re: Windsor Castle

MorningLover — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:03:34 GMT

In 1971 HRH the Duke of Edinburgh redesigned the flower beds and commissioned a new bronze Fountain based on his own Lotus design for the centre of the East Terrace garden

Re: Windsor Castle

wildcat fan — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:03:48 GMT

If I lived there, I'd want to pressure wash or something to clean it up.

Re: Windsor Castle

CelticCrafter — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:19:25 GMT

Personally, I find it to be underwhelming.

Re: Windsor Castle

spiderw — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:20:00 GMT

It looks breathtaking! There is so much history to see and English gardens are beautiful, I have always admired them. It's nice they are opening up to the public to enjoy and appreciate. I 'm sure those who take care of it all love what they do because it shows.

Re: Windsor Castle

MorningLover — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 02:09:05 GMT

Final touches: A gardener prunes the roses of Windsor Castle's East Terrace Garden, which opens to the public on Saturday

Simple but striking: Created in the 1820s, the garden features 3,500 rose bushes planted around a central fountain

Steeped in royal history: In the Middle Ages, before the area became a garden, it would have been the defensive ditch

Re: Windsor Castle

Dinaki — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:31:19 GMT

@Kachina624 you are right dear, almost all countries including mine (Greece) have banned passengers coming from the first leg USA.

One thing that puzzles me, how did Mr. Tom Hanks and his lovely wife are in Greece this summer.

I know that they have two houses there (in two Greek different islands) and that last year, our then President of Greece mr. P. Pavlopoulos, naturalized Toma Hanks Greek, therefore makinf him a citizen of that country.

I am Greek and still, they are not allowing me to step foot in my own country because I am in US.

Any how, I am here in this house standing and getting pretty...

PLease ladies, lets all have love to one another, our world needs us.

Re: Windsor Castle

Witchy Woman — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:46:43 GMT

@wildcat fan

I'm not sure what building materials are used in the main castle, but if it is brick and mortar, you would want to be careful to not damage either.

I know brick can be cleaned to remove excess mortar, but once it discolors, I'm not sure anything will "clean" it.

Re: Windsor Castle

wildcat fan — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:47:40 GMT

@Dinaki I've seen it posted here a few times and even looked it up myself. Greek citizens traveling from the U.S. are excluded from their travel ban.

Re: Windsor Castle

dulwich — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 18:33:49 GMT

@Dinaki You should recheck - I am British citizen and can fly back to U.K. any time but have to do two weeks isolation when I get there. My understanding is if you are citizen of country you can go home but have to isolate.

Sorry off subject - Windsor is indeed beautiful. I have actually been on the East terrace as two of my nephews are in Army and were ‘on guard’ for different events at Castle si we we got to see just small areas - the roses are to die for.

Re: Windsor Castle

millieshops — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 18:55:35 GMT

@Witchy Woman Wonder how many permanent outdoor workers it takes? I've long ago forgotten who the owner was, but when Long Island's Gold Coast was in what I call its Gatsby Era, there was one huge estate that had so many workers employed, just seeing them made the owner angry, so when his car entered the outer gates, the workers were instructed to drop their tools and hide! (Or at least that's the story the lecturer told us.)

Re: Windsor Castle

Still Raining — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 19:06:54 GMT

On some show about Prince Charles' garden at his home, he mentioned 12 FTEs. And it isn't that big.

Some other kind of lifestyle for sure. Can you imagine what 12 could do to your lawn?

Re: Windsor Castle

Still Raining — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 19:10:50 GMT

@Dinaki wrote:
@Kachina624 you are right dear, almost all countries including mine (Greece) have banned passengers coming from the first leg USA.

One thing that puzzles me, how did Mr. Tom Hanks and his lovely wife are in Greece this summer.
I know that they have two houses there (in two Greek different islands) and that last year, our then President of Greece mr. P. Pavlopoulos, naturalized Toma Hanks Greek, therefore makinf him a citizen of that country.

I am Greek and still, they are not allowing me to step foot in my own country because I am in US.

Any how, I am here in this house standing and getting pretty...

PLease ladies, lets all have love to one another, our world needs us.

For this whole time, as a citizen, you could have gone. Finding flights might have been a chore or quarantine. My neighbor, who is a EU citizen, has been twice about her father.

Re: Windsor Castle

PamfromCT — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 19:11:23 GMT

I have such fond memories of visiting there. We also loved the town surrounding the castle. It is so charming. This special tour would be something to see. Thank you for sharing.

Re: Windsor Castle

SharkE — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 22:36:18 GMT

They do what they have to do in times of money shortage.

Re: Windsor Castle

goldensrbest — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 12:43:53 GMT

One can not imagine how it is to live in such luxury ,as they do.