.’. Queen Caroline’s Bath .’.

Queen Caroline was the Princess Di of her day – married to her unfaithful husband King George IV. When he decided to leave her the decision made him very unpopular throughout the kingdom. Caroline was already a Brunswick Princess before marrying George; it is said the marriage was arranged to pay large gambling debts.

Caroline first arrived in England in 1795 and George was shocked to see that she was no oil painting. She gave birth to a daughter Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1796, they lived separated lives and she was never crowned Queen, by which time George was back to his old ways of having mistresses. Caroline moved from the Royal palace to Montague House on Blackheath (Greenwich) in 1797, doing the same as her husband by having orgies and suchlike, but Princess Caroline was lively, fun-loving and a keen gardener.

One of the Prince Regent’s complaints was that she rarely washed, and that she changed her undergarments ‘only infrequently’, that personal hygiene was an alien concept, and that she ate raw onions!
Caroline died in 1821 and Napoleon died the same year. When a courtier rushed to tell George ‘Sire, your greatest enemy is dead!’, he replied ‘No, by God! Is she?’.

In the August of 1804 she decided to leave England for good and live in exile abroad – which is what George had been waiting for. So as to have no reminder of his wife’s pleasurable parties he ordered the demolition of Montague House saying he w anted it razed to the ground. Obeying his wish the house was demolished, though the bits beneath the ground were overlooked. It was not until 1909 that the sunken bath was discovered. It can still be seen inside Greenwich Park along the Eastern Wall near the Charlton way entrance.