The Crown returned to Netflix last week for its fifth season, as the hit royal drama depicts one of the most turbulent decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. The 1990s were a tough time for the royal family, filled with scandals, divorces, and the destruction of one of the Queen’s official residences.
Episode four of The Crown’s latest season depicts the infamous fire at the Queen’s residence in Berkshire, an event that really occurred. On November 20 1992, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, causing millions of pounds worth of damage to the 1,000-year-old building.
According to the Royal Collection Trust (RCT), the fire broke out in Queen Victoria's Private Chapel, an octagonal room where Victoria regularly worshipped, and where some of her children were christened. The blaze started when a faulty spotlight had been left too close to a curtain, causing it to ignite.
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Within minutes it had spread to the adjacent St. George’s Hall – the roof of which would later collapse – Brunswick Tower, and into the private apartments in the castle’s east wing. RCT described the fire as “unstoppable.”
The fire was first spotted at around 11.30am and within three hours 225 firemen from seven counties were on the scene. The Queen was not at Windsor when the fire started, but the castle was occupied by many staff and soldiers, as well as her son Prince Andrew.
Andrew informed his mother about the blaze by telephone, with the monarch arriving on scene at 3pm and staying for around an hour. At the peak of the operation to tackle the inferno, 36 pumps were being used to discharge 1.5m gallons of water.
The fire was brought under control at 7pm, before it was finally extinguished at 2.30am on Saturday, November 21. It had burned for 15 hours and destroyed 115 rooms – including nine State Rooms – equal to one fifth of the castle.
Windsor was home to hundreds of centuries-old paintings, furniture, and other treasures, and as the blaze took hold of the building, staff worked franticly to remove them from the fire’s path. Miraculously only two works of art were lost as many had already been removed in advance of rewiring work.
The Queen returned to inspect the damage the next morning. Images of the monarch surveying the charred ruins of the castle were widely circulated, and have become synonymous with the year she deemed her “annus horribilis.”
Restoring Windsor Castle took five years, at a cost of £36.5m. £2m was paid by the Queen herself, while 70 per cent of the cost would be recouped by charging the public an entry fee to visit Windsor and Buckingham Palace, with the latter being open to the public for the first time.
Restoration was officially completed on November 20, 1997, exactly five years after the fire and on the 50th wedding anniversary of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
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