The Young Victoria

Lancaster House is a mansion in the St. James's district in the West End of London. It is close to St. James's Palace and much of the site was once part of the palace complex. This Grade I listed building is now managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Construction of the house commenced in... 1825 for the Duke of York and Albany, the second son of King George III, and it was initially known as York House, but it was only a shell at his death in 1827. The exterior was mainly designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt. It is constructed from Bath Stone, in a neo-classical style, being the last great London mansion to use this essentially Georgian style. The building is three floors in height, the State rooms being on the first floor or piano nobile, family living rooms on the ground floor and family bedrooms on the second floor. There is also a basement containing service rooms. The interior was designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt, Sir Charles Barry and Sir Robert Smirke and was completed in 1840.
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Ham House is situated beside the River Thames in Ham, south of Richmond in London, United Kingdom. It is claimed by the National Trust to be "unique in Europe as the most complete survival of 17th century fashion and power." It was the primary residence of Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale.... John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, was born here in 1680. The tea terrace is reputed to have the oldest Christ's thorn bush in the country. Walnut and chestnut trees in the outer courtyard act as roosts and nesting sites for a large flock of green parakeets. The formal listed avenues are formed by more than 250 trees. The house has changed little in 300 years, and the same applies to its formal gardens, which feature the oldest Orangery in Britain, an icehouse and a dairy. The National Trust has a tea room for visitors. The house is said to be haunted by the Duchess of Lauderdale and her dog, which a number of visitors claim to have seen running down the corridors . The house was subject to a year long investigation by the Ghost Club which recorded a number of phenomena that remain 'unexplained'.
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St. James's Park is a 23 hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London - the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St. James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St. James the Less. St. James's Park is bounded by... Buckingham Palace to the west, The Mall and St. James's Palace to the North, Horse Guards to the east, and Birdcage Walk to the south. The park has a small lake, St. James's Park Lake, with two islands, West Island, and Duck Island, which is named for the lake's collection of waterfowl. This includes a resident colony of pelicans, which has been a feature of the park since the first gift of the birds from a Russian ambassador in 1664. A bridge across the lake affords a view of Buckingham Palace framed by trees and fountains, and a view of the main building of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, similarly framed, to the east. The park is the most easterly of a near-continuous chain of parks that also comprise Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The closest London Underground stations are St. James's Park, Victoria, and Westminster.
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