During the Regency era, few ladies received an invitation to be presented to the queen.  Such an honor typically belonged only to wives and sometimes daughters of peers, and it was a one-time event.  Oddly enough, the presentation did not occur in the throne room, but in fact, happened in the Queen’s Drawing-room. The event itself came to be known as “the Queen’s Drawing-room.”

During my research, I stumbled upon some fun facts. Today there are three queen’s drawing rooms in Buckingham palace; a blue drawing-room, a white drawing-room, and a red drawing-room. Each is breathtakingly magnificent and still retains the flavor of bygone eras.  Apparently, the blue drawing-room was originally intended to be a ballroom, but another took its place. The blue wallpaper adorning the walls has been in place since the reign of Queen Mary. It was in this room, originally called the South Drawing Room, where ladies were presented to the queen during the Regency.

Keep in mind that I’m a gawky, middle-class American, so I find the pictures of these drawing rooms jaw-dropping and overwhelming. Both times I visited London, Buckingham Palace was closed to visitors, so I have yet to have the honor of viewing them in person, but if I ever did, I’m quite certain it would rob me of all speech.

I devoted a couple of blog posts regarding the details of what a court presentation actually entailed in the Queen’s Drawing-room here and here, but for this post, I’m concentrating on the rooms themselves.

Since I enjoy almost everything more when I share it with someone, I wanted to share a virtual tour of the Queen’s Drawing-rooms, which still retain the grandeur of the  Georgian Era. The virtual tour is, putting it mildly, awesome–not the overused term for anything from “that’s cool” to “that’s great”–but literally, awesome, as in, it inspires awe.

Click here for your virtual tour of the queen’s drawing-room. I hope you enjoy it.