Kew Palace, Royal palace in Kew Gardens, United Kingdom.
Kew Palace stands within Kew Gardens and shows a red brick facade with white window frames and curved gables in seventeenth-century style. The three floors contain small rooms with low ceilings and narrow stairs, recreating the domestic scale of royal private quarters from over two hundred years ago.
Samuel Fortrey built the house in 1631 as a private residence before Queen Caroline leased it in 1728 for her three eldest daughters. King George III and Queen Charlotte later used it as a retreat during the royal illness that marked the end of its use as a main residence.
The name Dutch House refers to the Flemish brick style that became fashionable in seventeenth-century England as an import from the Netherlands. On the upper floors, small rooms with low ceilings show how cramped even royal families lived in the eighteenth century.
The building opens between April and September and shows rooms furnished with eighteenth-century pieces and kitchen equipment. The upper floors are reached by narrow stairs that may be difficult for visitors with limited mobility.
Below the main rooms lie remains of a Tudor undercroft from the sixteenth century connected to Robert Dudley. He used the earlier building on this site for visits by Queen Elizabeth I, long before the current brick house was built.
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