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Landaulet

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In coachbuilding , a landau (pronounced LAN-dow ) is a four-wheeled carriage with a roof that can be let down. It was a luxury carriage. The low shell of the landau provides maximal visibility of the occupants and their clothing, a feature that makes a landau still a popular choice for Lord Mayors in the United Kingdom on ceremonial occasions.

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37-588: Landaulet may refer to: Landaulet (carriage) , horse-drawn carriage Landaulet (car) , automobile Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Landaulet . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Landaulet&oldid=832197112 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

74-713: A BMW i3 and a BMW 7 Series hybrid to a Nissan van and a Renault Twizy . The following chart shows the staff structure of the Royal Mews Department at the end of the twentieth century (when around fifty people lived and worked at the Mews). The position of Superintendent, which included oversight of the staff of the Mews, was abolished in 2000. The Royal Mews, Hampton Court Palace overlooks Hampton Court Green. It continues to provide accommodation for royal staff, and horses are stabled there from time to time. It

111-802: A state landau available in Ottawa for ceremonial processions from Rideau Hall to Parliament Hill . The State Landau was given to Canada in 1911 and was formerly used by the Governor General of Australia . For the King's Plate in Toronto , the monarch and the royal family have a private landau owned by the Ontario Jockey Club and gift from E.P. Taylor . A number of horse-drawn carriages, known in Japan as zagyoshiki , are maintained by

148-585: A hiatus during the Napoleonic wars when George III used black stallions in protest at the French occupation of Hanover). The mews was rebuilt again in 1732 to the designs of William Kent , and in the early 19th century it was open to the public. This building was usually known as the King's Mews (or Queen's Mews when there was a woman on the throne), but was also sometimes referred to as the Royal Mews or

185-551: A landau. The landaulette retains the rear half of the landau's two-part folding top. The earliest use of the word shown in the Oxford English Dictionary is in a patent of 1771, using the former spelling landawlet . Landaulet. A coupé version of the Landau, seating two passengers facing forward. A square type, the rear part protected by a falling hood or half hood. Drawn by either a single horse in shafts or

222-409: A low half-door. There would usually be a separate raised open coachman's upholstered bench-seat, but a landau could be postilion -driven, and there was usually a separate groom's seat, sprung above and behind the rear axle, saving the groom from having to stand on a running board. A five-glass landau was fitted with a front glass windscreen and two windows on each side (including retractable windows on

259-632: A miniature landau made for the children of George V and designed to be pulled by ponies. Landaus make for a striking display as long as the weather is fine, and they are used on occasions ranging from State Visits and the Opening of Parliament, to Royal Weddings, Jubilees and other celebrations. They also play a regular part in the welcoming of new ambassadors to the Court of St James's : soon after arriving in London , foreign ambassadors have an audience with

296-509: A pair in pole gear. Hung on sideways elliptical and semi-elliptical springs. The name landaulette was also used for the landaulet car body style , where the passengers are covered by a removable top and the chauffeur is usually covered and separated from passengers by a division. The Royal Mews contains several different types of landau: seven State Landaus are in regular use (dating from between 1838 & 1872), plus five Semi-state Landaus. As well as being slightly plainer in ornamentation,

333-445: A single curve. The soft folding top is divided into two sections, front and rear, latched at the center. These usually lie perfectly flat, but the back section can be let down or thrown back while the front section can be removed or left stationary. When fully opened, the top can completely cover the passengers, with some loss of the graceful line. The landau's centre section might contain a fixed full-height glazed door, or more usually

370-412: A veterinary surgeon. When Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Buckingham Palace became the monarch's principal residence. Prince Albert used the back mews for stabling his own horses (for riding and driving). By the 1850s there were just under two hundred people employed at the mews, most of whom lived on site with their families. Standing either side of the entrance were official residences (one for

407-441: Is Queen Victoria 's state sledge, one of a number of royal sleighs in the Mews. Also on display are some of the historic and immaculately kept liveries and harnesses (which likewise see regular use), ranging from the plainer items used for exercising and working horses, to the ornamented state liveries and harnesses designed for use with the similarly appointed state coaches. The maintenance and provision of modern motor vehicles

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444-432: Is as much a part of the work of the Royal Mews as that of carriages and horses. Edward VII first established a garage in the Mews in the early years of the twentieth century. The principal official cars are all painted in black over claret (known as Royal Claret). They are driven, cared for and maintained by a number of chauffeurs, who are based in the Mews and work under the head chauffeur (who, along with his deputy,

481-577: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Landaulet (carriage) A landau is lightweight and suspended on elliptical springs . It was invented in the 18th century; landau in this sense is first noted in English in 1743. It was named after the German city of Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate where they were first produced. In

518-734: Is not open to the public. There is a working Royal Mews at Windsor Castle where the Ascot carriages are normally kept, together with vehicles used in Windsor Great Park . Some horses for riding (rather than driving) are also stabled here. At Holyrood , the Royal Mews (situated in Abbey Strand) is one of the oldest parts of the Palace, and is still pressed into service whenever royal carriages are used in Edinburgh. Historically,

555-454: Is primarily responsible for driving the monarch). The five principal state cars are without number plates . They comprise: The following vehicles, used for less-formal occasions and as support vehicles, are similarly painted in the royal claret and black livery: Land Rovers , luggage brakes and people carriers are also kept at the Royal Mews. A number of electric vehicles have been acquired since 2012, for various purposes, ranging from

592-533: The "Woodcut" map of London of the early 1560s, the Mews can be seen extending back towards the site of today's Leicester Square . When George I came to the throne in 1714 he brought with him to London the famous cream stallions which he was wont to use as Elector of Hanover . Bred at the Royal Stud at Hampton Court, these horses pulled state carriages in England for the next two hundred years (except for

629-546: The Australian Bicentenary celebrations; it was the first new royal state coach to be built since the 1902 State Landau . At that time, despite the earlier disposals, the Royal Mews still had custody of over a hundred vehicles, with all but a dozen being in working order; the majority were in London or Windsor, with others spread around the other royal residences. As well as being a full-time working facility,

666-418: The 1820s) within the grounds of Buckingham Palace . The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace, includes an extensive display of royal carriages and other associated items, and is open to the public for much of the year. It is also a working part of the palace, where horses and people live and work, and where carriages and cars are in daily use supporting the work of the monarch as head of state . The titular head of

703-527: The 1830s, Luke Hopkinson, a celebrated coach-maker in Holborn, introduced the Briska Landau, which led with subsequent improvements to the popular landau. A landau, drawn by a pair or four-in-hand , is one of several kinds of vis-à-vis , a social carriage with facing seats over a dropped footwell ( illustration ), which was perfected by the mid-19th century in the form of a swept base that flowed in

740-639: The Crown Equerry, the other for the Clerk of the Stables); other staff were accommodated in rooms above the stables and carriage houses. In 1855 Queen Victoria established a Buckingham Palace Royal Mews School, for the education of the workers' children. Under Victoria's successor, King Edward VII , motor vehicles were introduced into the mews. In 1904 the Crown Equerry wrote to the Office of Works to request

777-552: The Imperial household and regularly used when new ambassadors present their credentials to the emperor as well as for royal weddings and coronations. Royal Mews The Royal Mews is a mews , or collection of equestrian stables, of the British royal family . In London these stables and stable-hands' quarters have occupied two main sites in turn, being located at first on the north side of Charing Cross , and then (since

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814-623: The Mews are pictured here in action; several more are illustrated on their own pages (see listing below). Vehicles in the care of the Royal Mews are listed below. A good number are on public display, though not all are kept in London. Most are in regular use, and some (for example, the broughams) are driven on a daily basis. Others (above all the Gold Coach) are only used on great and rare state occasions. The list includes vehicles for personal, recreational and sporting use, as well as those designed and kept for state occasions: In less regular use

851-634: The Queen in which they present their Letters of Credence or Letters of High Commission to Her Majesty. The ambassadors are collected from the embassy or residence by a State landau from the Royal Mews for this purpose, and escorted by the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps , who is based at St James's Palace . The ambassador's suite follows in another State landau. The monarch of Canada has

888-787: The Royal Mews is the Master of the Horse (one of the three great officers of the Royal Household ). The executive head is the Crown Equerry , who lives on site and oversees the Royal Mews Department (which is a department of the Royal Household). The first set of stables to be referred to as a mews was at Charing Cross at the western end of The Strand . The royal hawks were kept at this site from 1377 and

925-483: The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace, is regularly open to the public. The state coaches and other carriages are kept there, along with about 30 horses, together with their modern counterparts: the state motor cars . Coachmen, grooms, chauffeurs and other staff are accommodated in flats above the carriage houses and stables. The complement of horses in the Royal Mews today includes around a dozen Windsor Greys and eighteen Cleveland Bays . The horses are regularly exercised in

962-655: The Royal Stables. Kent's redesign was a classical building occupying the northern half of the site, with an open space in front of it that ranked among the few large ones in central London at a time when the Royal Parks were on the fringes of the city and most squares in London were garden squares open only to the residents of their surrounding houses. On 15 June 1820, the Guards in the Royal Mews mutinied in support of Caroline of Brunswick , whom King George IV

999-590: The Semi-state Landaus are distinguished from the State Landaus in that they are postilion -driven, rather than driven from the box . The 1902 State Landau was built for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902. Unlike the earlier State Landaus, it is postilion-driven. So too are the five Ascot Landaus, smaller and lighter carriages with basket-work sides, which are used each year (as their name suggests) at Royal Ascot . The Royal Mews also retains

1036-410: The art of pulling carriages (which is one of the reasons for the continuing use of horse-drawn transport for the daily messenger rounds between Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace ); they are used for competitive and recreational driving as well as for ceremonial duties. The manure that is produced by the horses is used by the adjacent Buckingham Palace Garden . A few of the carriages stored at

1073-570: The ascendency, and following his accession to the throne Edward VIII disposed of several of the more 'day to day' carriages. George VI made more disposals after the Second World War: for example, sixteen plain Edwardian town coaches were sold off at this time (just one remained , stored away at Windsor; it was later rediscovered, glazed and restored to royal use). A total of nineteen carriages were purchased by Sir Alexander Korda after

1110-527: The conversion of 'two small coach-houses in the Back Mews' into 'a suitable Motor House [...] with a Lantern roof, hot water heating apparatus and electric lighting'. The conversion duly took place, and accommodation was provided nearby for the chauffeurs. In the early 20th century problems had arisen due to inbreeding of the Hanoverian creams. In 1920 they were withdrawn from use and in their place, for

1147-414: The doors). The landau reached its full development by the mid-19th century. It was purely a city carriage of luxury type. The low shell of the landau made for maximum visibility of the occupants and their clothing, a feature that makes a landau still a popular choice for Lords Mayor on ceremonial occasions. A landaulet carriage, also landaulette or demi-landau , is a cut-down ( coupé ) version of

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1184-509: The grounds of Buckingham House , which he had acquired in 1762 for his wife's use. The Riding School , thought to be by William Chambers , dates from this period (it was completed in 1764; the pediment , with sculptural motifs by William Theed , was added in 1859). The main royal stables housing the ceremonial coaches and their horses remained at the King's Mews, Charing Cross; however, when his son George IV had Buckingham Palace converted into

1221-438: The main royal residence in the 1820s the whole stables establishment was moved there. The current Royal Mews was built to designs by John Nash and was completed in 1825 (though the mews buildings have been modified extensively since). The main quadrangle was laid out with coach houses on the east side, and stable blocks (alternating with harness and forage rooms) on the west. Beyond it, the 'back mews' included accommodation for

1258-685: The name originates from the fact that they were confined there at moulting time ("mew" being derived from the French verb "muer", to moult). In the Tudor Period, the Royal Stables were located in Lomesbury (present-day Bloomsbury ). In 1534 they were destroyed by fire, whereupon the King, Henry VIII , decided to rebuild the Charing Cross mews as a stables (the hawks having been given alternative accommodation). It kept its former name when it acquired this new function. On old maps, such as

1295-508: The rest of the decade, bay horses took pride of place in the Mews. In the early 1930s, however, King George V began using grey horses for the lead carriages in state and ceremonial processions; his son and heir Edward VIII moved the grey horses from Windsor (where they had been used for many years by the Royal Family for their private carriages) to London, where they were nicknamed the ' Windsor Greys '. By 1936 motor vehicles were in

1332-514: The war, for use as film props; of these, five Clarences were borrowed back in 1953 for the coronation (to supplement five identical carriages which had been retained by the Mews). The coronation that year involved thirty-four coaches and carriages with seventy-eight horses in harness. In 1988 a new state coach was presented to the Mews, the Australian State Coach , built by former Mews employee W. J. Frecklington as part of

1369-466: Was seeking to divorce. The whole site was cleared in the late 1820s to create Trafalgar Square , laid out in 1837–1844 after delays, and the National Gallery which opened in 1838. The present Royal Mews is in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, to the south of Buckingham Palace Gardens , near Grosvenor Place. In the 1760s George III moved some of his day-to-day horses and carriages to

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