LONDON, July 8 (UPI) -- Kew Palace, a favorite tourist attraction that has been closed for eight years for renovation, will reopen to visitors in 2006.
Historic Royal Palaces that manages the building in Kew Gardens said the $10 million restoration was being paid for with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donors, with about $2 million still to be raised.
The former royal estate in the borough of Richmond was built in 1631 and last refurbished as a country palace for King George III, who failed in his efforts to suppress independence of his American colonies. The ground floor will be used to provide an introduction to visitors and the second floor rooms are being reconstructed in the Georgian style as they were when used by the royal family about 1800.
Other attraction provided by Kew are the Royal Botanical Gardens, dating from the 1600s, an orangery considered a jewel of Georgian architecture, and a Chinese-style pagoda built as a garden folly.
