Bicentenary of Queen Victoria’s birth marked by Kensington Palace exhibitions

The 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth is being celebrated at her childhood home, Kensington Palace, with the opening of two major new exhibitions.

Victoria: Woman and Crown and Victoria: A Royal Childhood begin on Friday to coincide with the bicentenary.

Woman and Crown explores the private life behind the monarch’s carefully-controlled public image.

It aims to “re-introduce Victoria as a young woman” and explore her roles as a queen, wife, mother and empress.

Rare surviving pieces from the 19th-century monarch’s wardrobe are on show at the palace for the first time – including a simple cotton petticoat dated to around the time of her marriage and a fashionable pair of silver boots.

Britain had evolved into a constitutional monarchy and she became the figurehead of a vast empire, with her reign spanning the rest of the century.

She married Prince Albert and had nine children, but mourned Albert’s early death for the rest of her life.

The display also explores Victoria’s complex love affair with India, from the story behind the Koh-i-noor diamond to her friendship with the deposed Maharajah Duleep Singh.

Examples of her personal diaries carefully inscribed in Urdu will form a centrepiece.

The Victoria: A Royal Childhood exhibition allows visitors to follow a route through the suite of rooms in the west London royal residence where the young Victoria was born and spent her childhood.

– Victoria: Woman and Crown and Victoria: A Royal Childhood are open daily from May 24 and entry is included in palace admission tickets.