First Floor

On the first floor of the building are the royal apartments to which access is gained by the main staircase at the top of which is a fresco of "Neptune resigning the Empire of the Seas to Britannia". This is by William Dyce (1847).

The rooms on the first floor, the Prince's dressing room, the Queen's sitting room and bedroom do not have the elaborate decoration of the ground floor rooms. This creates a strong contrast between the public and private functions of the various rooms in the building. The first floor rooms were built for comfort and to satisfy the domestic needs of the royal family and do not generally reflect the aesthetic trends of the 19th century. After the death of the Prince 14 December 1861 from typhoid at the age of 42 the Queen ordered that nothing should be changed and has even to this day remained almost intact. The bedroom here is where Queen Victoria died.

The nurseries are also located on this floor and on the top landing there is a stature of Prince Albert in Roman armour done by Emil Wolff, yet another reminder of the Prince's passion for things Italian.

What strikes these royal apartment most is the lack of any conformity to the artistic tendencies of the 19th century.