Queen Camilla cheekily quips she could 'nudge' King Charles off ‘special’ garden museum
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Queen Camilla has cheekily quipped that she wants to “nudge” the King from his position as patron of a museum that she loves.
The Queen, 76, visited the Gardening Bohemia exhibition at the Garden Museum in south London, which explores the gardens of the Bloomsbury group.
Camilla described London’s Garden Museum as “such a special place” as she enjoyed her third visit in just over 12 months to tour a new exhibition about the gardens associated with women from the famous Bloomsbury group of artists.
The Queen told guests: “I don’t know how many visits I’ve paid here – quite a lot. I know my husband’s patron but I might have to nudge him, I’d quite like to take that one away from him.
Queen Camilla said that the garden is a special place
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“It’s such a special place that every time I’m asked, I just like to come back again and I think this wonderful exhibition celebrating women in garden(ing) is so important.”
She added: “I’m so glad that you are celebrating all the women who are these great gardeners because we do love gardening, it’s quite often the men who get celebrated and not the women, so I think you’re doing a brilliant job here.”
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The Queen is a keen reader
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The exhibition aims to demonstrate how green spaces became places where “ideas about creativity and domesticity, nature, sexuality and relationships could be uprooted and redefined”.
It includes photographs, paintings, textiles, garden tools, manuscripts and correspondence, much of which has never been made public, to tell the interweaving stories of the four women.
The manuscript of A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf's 1929 essay, is among the items on display.
She was a regular visitor to Vita Sackville-West's colour-themed garden “rooms”.
Camilla made a cheeky quip
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The Queen, a keen reader, was greeted on arrival by Alan Titchmarsh, the president of the Garden Museum
After the visit, Alan Titchmarsh spoke about the Queen’s private home in Gloucestershire: “She’s a great gardener and I know that Ray Mill is a wonderful retreat for her with her own garden.”
He added: “We would be very happy to have the Queen and the King as patron, either or both. We just love that she loves to come.”
She also met Shane Connolly, the florist who designed the arrangements for the Coronation last May.
Curators Dr Claudia Tobin and Emma House showed the Queen around the exhibition.