A Royal Waiting Room

I managed to get tickets to a guided tour of the Royal Waiting Room at the Den Haag Holland Spoor train station, one of three royal waiting rooms in the Netherlands along with Amsterdam and Baarn. It’s rather magnificent, and of course there are no ticket check gates.

The entrance is just to the left of the station’s main entrance, through a pair of dark wooden panelled doors. Inside it’s cool and there’s a slight dustiness, it’s well maintained but rarely used. The interior is designed to be full of symbolism and it is highly ornate.

Apparently there is usually a carpet on the stairs but it has been removed for cleaning, you can already see the ornate floor tiles and all the marble.

The stained glass above the staircase, with the arms of Rotterdam and Amsterdam flanking those of The Hague, The other shields I think are from the Dutch provinces.

There is a dramatic ceremonial staircase leading to a central waiting room, which has doors with direct access to the platform. There are two side rooms parallel to the platform – one for the monarch and any partner the other for the children, each with their own bathroom (the one thing we were asked not to photograph!). On the side facing the street there is a room for the attendants and another room that leads to the balcony to allow the royal family to wave to people. Of course if the Royal Family are travelling by train it’s in the royal train which will be standing at the platform ready to travel. The royal train is a single carriage that gets a regular NS train engine added to it, and one or two first class carriages for attendants.

There is tremendous detail and symbolism in every aspect of the decor, with paintings showing royal virtues of Justice and loyalty. Everything was made by the best artisans and craftspeople – the fabric on the chairs is original and was made by the same company that provided upholstery fabric for the titanic. The mosaic on the landing of the stairs use stone from Belgium and is a rare example of a European mosaic.

The waiting room was opened in 1893 by the thirteen-year-old Queen Wilhelmina and it’s her cypher that is on the mantelpieces and the wallpaper. At that time rail links were growing throughout Europe and it must have seemed very promising that the young Queen was using something so very modern. In fact the new Queen, with her mother who acted as regent, made a goodwill tour of every Dutch province in an effort to “meet the people” and build confidence in the new young monarch.

It is still used by the Dutch Royal Family today but rather infrequently, perhaps once every three years. The last use I can find is 2017, but I suspect Covid might have upset any travel plans since then.

The tickets are all sold for the tours this year but keep your eyes on This is Den Haag accounts on Instagram and Facebook for the next announcements. The cost was 9.95 euro, and the tour took about half an hour. The tour I went on was in Dutch, so if you need English check before booking. If you can’t wait for more tickets to be available maybe the Dutch Spoorwegen Museum is worth a look.

a note on images – the first is swiped from Google maps, the others I took on the tour