If history were to assign a nickname to Edward VII, it should perhaps be The Great Decorator. When he ascended the throne in 1901, after a long wait in the wings as Prince of Wales, he launched an interior revolution. \u2018He inherited palaces that had been decorated by his parents 50 years before or longer, places such as Osborne House, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and went through them like a dose of salts,\u2019 says Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection. \u2018He obliterated his parents\u2019 schemes quite intentionally.\u2019 Tim, who this month is giving a talk \u2014 or \u2018a gallop\u2019, as he puts it \u2014 about royal patronage in the 20th century at the Royal Academy in London, mentions as an example the bedroom in which Prince Albert had died: \u2018It had been preserved in aspic by Queen Victoria: the King deliberately dismantled it.\u2019<\/p>\n Edward II was not fond of Queen Victoria’s somber style and went about changing a myriad rooms, including at Windsor Castle, pictured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption> (Image credit: Country Life Image Archive)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Decades of London smog and changing fashions had made the mid-Victorian style beloved of Prince Albert look rather dreary. Instead, explains Tim, Edward VII, who was enamoured of France and all things French, went for \u2018a Ritz-hotel look\u2019 of white and gold. Another Francophile king before him, George IV, had furnished the palaces with copious amounts of grand furniture, so Edward VII primarily focused his attention on the setting: \u2018He painted out all the elaborate marbling and murals that Queen Victoria had commissioned and replaced them with white and gold. Combined with red damask, they\u2019re really the sort of interiors we know today at Buckingham Palace.\u2019<\/p>\n Queen Mary\u2019s Dolls\u2019 House was built between 1921 and 1924 as a gift from the nation to Queen, following the First World War.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption> (Image credit: Country Life Image Archive)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n The King had just about time to make his mark on the building before he died, a mere nine years into his reign. His successor, George V, \u2018a martinet\u2019, was very keen on uniforms and stamps, but not really interested in architecture, furniture or art. \u2018However, his queen, Mary, was,\u2019 says Tim.<\/p>\n![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/uT4X5BAv7rvSYgDDkCKcr3-1920-80.jpg.webp)
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