Читать книгу The Queen: History in an Hour - Sinead Fitzgibbon - Страница 9

Naturally, this sudden transformation in the family’s circumstances necessitated a whole host of changes, not least of which was a rather hurried relocation to Buckingham Palace.

Up till now, the family, having moved from Bruton Street many years earlier, had lived in a rather imposing residence at 145 Piccadilly, which had a magnificent view across Green Park. However impressive its appointments, Princess Elizabeth’s childhood home paled into insignificance when compared to the ostentatious grandeur of the Palace. Nonetheless, both Elizabeth and Margaret were rather unenthusiastic at the prospect of moving to the residence which they had, until recently, always thought of as the home of their grandparents. In her book, The Little Princesses, the children’s governess, Crawfie, recounted Elizabeth’s reaction on hearing of their impending move:

When I broke the news to Margaret and Lilibet that they were going to live in Buckingham Palace, they looked at me in horror. ‘What!’ Lilibet said. ‘You mean forever?’

Their reticence was perhaps understandable. Having frequently visited their grandparents there, the girls were only too aware that, in stark contrast to the magnificence of the State Apartments, the upper floors of Buckingham Palace, with their paucity of bathrooms and their badly heated, mice-infested bedrooms, were in dire need of modernization.

Buckingham Palace, photograph by David Iliff, (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

However, the sisters had little choice but to make the most of the situation, and they soon discovered there were advantages to living in such an environment. The seemingly endless warren of gloomy passageways, through which the sisters were allowed to run virtually unimpeded, were a child’s paradise, while the Palace’s innumerable nooks and crannies provided bountiful opportunities for games of hide and seek.

Another benefit of living at Buckingham Palace was the vast gardens, and both Elizabeth and Margaret spent many happy hours exploring the grounds. One of their favourite features was ‘the hill’, a large mound of earth which rose above the Palace walls, allowing the girls to get a glimpse of the outside world. Indeed, years later Elizabeth would admit to her portrait painter, Pietro Annigoni, that she spent many hours watching all the cars and activity in the Mall, and often wondered what life was like beyond the confines of the Palace walls.

And so it seems, for all the advantages and privileges afforded to her, the young Elizabeth could not escape the fact that she was, in effect, a princess trapped in her ivory tower.