Royalty,Romance and Recreation

ABSTRACT

This article examines the growth of ‘heritage tourism’ by looking at three royal palaces: the Tower of London, Windsor Castle and Hampton Court, each of which underwent a process of textual and architectural reconstruction during the nineteenth century which repositioned them both historically and culturally. It is argued that visitor responses to these sites were rarely, if ever, inspired by nationalism or royalism; more to the fore were Gothic and romantic sensibilities, popular conceptions of the past which were often democratic and self-improving, and the time-honoured practices of popular pleasure.