Art in the Age of Elegance: King's Gallery Short Talks

The King's Gallery is running a series of short talks every Thursday morning from 30 April to 3 December 2026, inside the Palace of Holyroodhouse. They're fifteen-minute sessions, 11:00 to 11:15, given by the Royal Collection Trust team. They run alongside The Edwardians: Age of Elegance, the exhibition currently hanging in the gallery, and each one focuses on the objects and artwork on display and the Edwardian context they sit in.

That exhibition looks at the opulence and glamour of the Edwardian era—the years between the Victorian age and the First World War—through the lives and tastes of two of Britain's most fashionable royal couples: King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary. It follows them from family life and personal collecting to their glittering social circles and spectacular royal events, drawing on works by Carl Fabergé, Frederic Leighton, Edward Burne-Jones, Rosa Bonheur and John Singer Sargent. The whole thing spans from Edward and Alexandra's wedding in 1863 to the end of the First World War.

The gallery itself is a rotating space for exhibitions from the Royal Collection, so you'll find old master paintings, rare furniture, decorative arts and images from the Trust's vast photograph collection alongside the Edwardian show. The talks are a good way to get a bit more on the objects and the era without having to spend the whole morning there.

Tickets are £11.00 for adults, £7.00 for young people aged 18 to 24, and £5.50 for children aged 5 to 17 and disabled people. Access companions go free, under-fives are free, and there are £1 tickets for those on Universal Credit and other named benefits. The talks run every Thursday morning at 11:00 until 3 December.