Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, treated Museums at Night 2011 competition winners to a guided rooftop tour of Hampton Court Palace. Kirstie Brewer joined in the fun...Winners were first greeted by a piece of pornographic graffiti pencilled onto a staircase wall by a bored page in 1700.
The image of a lady with legs akimbo, sporting nothing but a pair of lavishly drawn heels, sparked a lively conversation about the history of sexual deviance.
It was something Lucy knew a great deal about having presented the BBC series If Walls Could Talk, An Intimate History of the Home and written an accompanying book by the same name.
Several flights up and being careful to dodge the low hanging beams, we clambered onto the rooftop and viewed the palace and its grounds from a truly breathtaking and unique perspective.
We were particularly privileged to see both the Tudor and Stuart parts of the Palace simultaneously, which is only possible from the rooftop.
Surveying the grounds from such a great height gave everyone a new appreciation of its regimented and carefully thought out nature and Lucy went to great effort to give us a rich and dynamic historical narrative to accompany the picturesque views.
