Duchess Kate steps out with Queen Elizabeth at King's College London
With pregnant Duchess Meghan prepping for her first royal baby, sister-in-law Duchess Kate of Cambridge is stepping up her schedule, joining Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday at King's College London.
Kate accompanied Her Majesty, the royal patron of the college, to open Bush House, the new teaching-and-research center spread out over five iconic buildings on the Strand campus in central London not far from the Thames.
It was Kate's second public appearance of the week, having joined Prince William on Sunday for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards at their barracks in west London.
Later Tuesday, she was scheduled to visit the Foundling Museum in London.
King's College London is the fourth-oldest university in England, famous for its major role in the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.
The college signed long-term leases in 2015 on the five buildings making up Bush House, now home to academic departments and state-of-the-art learning and social spaces and student facilities.
The royal duo are scheduled to tour the new facilities and take in the panoramic views of London from the Roof Terraces.
They'll see some robots – taking in robotics demonstrations such as robotic surgery – and King’s virtual trading floor to meet students from the Entrepreneurship Institute. They'll wrap up the visit with the usual ceremonial unveiling of a plaque, something the queen has done thousands of times in her 67 years on the throne, and something Duchess Kate will do when she becomes queen consort in the distant future.
Later Tuesday, Kate will pay her second visit to the Foundling Museum to examine how they use art to help vulnerable and marginalized young people.
The Foundling Museum tells the history of the Foundling Hospital, the United Kingdom's first children’s charity and public art gallery. The museum works with contemporary artists, writers and musicians to develop learning programs for kids, especially those who have been in foster care, to help them imagine new possibilities for themselves.
Kate, whose college degree is in art history and who also is royal patron of the National Gallery of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, is scheduled to visit "Bedrooms of London," a museum photography exhibition that documents the living conditions of London’s most disadvantaged children.
A keen photographer herself, Kate will see photographs by graduates of the museum’s Tracing our Tales program, developed to teach young adults from London boroughs the skills to deliver workshops at the museum.
Kate visited the Foundling Museum in 2017, meeting the first class of Tracing our Tales trainees; now she will meet them again to hear how the program has helped them gain confidence and employment. She's scheduled to join them in a training session where participants will be learning how to deliver a creative workshop on block printing techniques.
