On Thursday, the doors of Holyroodhouse opened up to the public for the first time, allowing them unprecedented glimpses into the life of the late Queen.
Among the rooms opened up are the breakfast room, where the former monarch would dine with her husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh. “She would take breakfast between 9am and 9.15am, with the Queen’s piper playing down below in the garden,” Richard Williams, a leading curator at the royal home, revealed.
“She and the Duke of Edinburgh would be here, the Scotsman newspaper would be delivered, also the Radio Times and the Racing Post as well. “The Queen always knew everything that was going on.”
However, after Philip’s death in 2021, breakfast took on a new poignant meaning for the late Queen, who would continue to dine in the same room.
Richard said: “After the Duke of Edinburgh passed away, breakfast was the only meal that she would eat by herself, and she would sit in the chair with her back to the fireplace so she could see all the members of staff and people’s comings and goings in front of her. For other times of the day, she would eat with members of the royal family.”
Of all the rooms in the palace, the breakfast room was one of the more modest ones. The centre of the room features a modest round wooden table that emphasised the private nature of the meal for the late royal.
Other insights
Around the new millennium, Queen Elizabeth was gifted with a teddy bear that she named Haddington, after a town in Scotland. She became very fond of the bear, and whenever she travelled to her Scottish residence, she had specific requests for how the toy should be displayed.
Emma Stead, the curator for Holyroodhouse, explained: “The Queen was given him as a gift and after that she asked that whenever she arrived here, he be placed in that particular position on the sofa awaiting her arrival. She had a few personal objects that she liked to be placed quite precisely.”
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesThis wasn’t the only item that the late Queen wanted to be displayed in a specific way. Emma added: “Another one is the pin cushion just to the left of the fireplace, which was presented to her when she attended the Commonwealth Games in 1986 in Edinburgh, and it has all the badges of the represented countries who took part.”
Holyroodhouse is a tourist hotspot located at the base of Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile, and it serves as the official Scottish residence of the British monarch. As well as being a choice spot for royal fans, it is a working palace and plays host to formal ceremonies, state affairs, and the King’s annual Holyrood Week celebrations.
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