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[MorningLover]

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. 

[MorningLover]

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

[Witchy Woman]

@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!

[Kachina624]

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

[wildcat fan]

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

[MorningLover]

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

[wildcat fan]

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

[CelticCrafter]

Personally, I find it to be underwhelming.

[spiderw]

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.

[MorningLover]

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