Kensington Palace

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Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens

See also Kensington Gardens, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide, AustraliaKensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park, London....
in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a London borough in the west side of central London.It is an urban area and was named in the United Kingdom Census 2001 as the most densely populated local authority in the United Kingdom, with a population of 158,919 at 13,244 per square kilometre ....
in London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in his or her Commonwealth realm#The Crown in the Commonwealth realmss, thus sometimes at variance with official national terms for the family....
since the 17th century. Today it is the official residence of The Duke

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester is a member of the British Royal Family, the youngest grandchild of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck....
and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent is a member of the British Royal Family, a grandchild of George V of the United Kingdom. He has held the title of Duke of Kent since 1942....
and Duchess of Kent; and Prince

Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent is a member of the British Royal Family, a grandchild of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck.Prince Michael of Kent does not officially carry out royal duties on behalf of his cousin, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, although he has represented the Queen in some functions abroad....
and Princess Michael of Kent

Princess Michael of Kent

Princess Michael of Kent , is a member of the British Royal Family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of George V of the United Kingdom....
. Kensington Palace is also used on an unofficial basis by Prince Henry, as well as his cousin Zara Phillips

Zara Phillips

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, Order of the British Empire is a member of the British royal family and is the second child and only daughter of Anne, Princess Royal and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips....
.

Until 1997, it was the official residence of Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was the younger sister of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.Margaret spent much of her early life in the company of her elder sister and parents, George VI of the United Kingdom and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon....
until 2002. original early 17th-century building was constructed in the village of Kensington as Nottingham House for the Earl of Nottingham

Earl of Nottingham

Earl of Nottingham is a title that has been created six times in the Peerage of England....
.

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Encyclopedia

Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

London

British Royal Family

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester is a member of the British Royal Family, the youngest grandchild of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck....
and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent

Princess Michael of Kent

Zara Phillips

Diana, Princess of Wales

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

Kensington Palace From the South By Kip (1724)

History

The original early 17th-century building was constructed in the village of Kensington as Nottingham House for the Earl of Nottingham

Earl of Nottingham

Earl of Nottingham is a title that has been created six times in the Peerage of England....
. It was acquired from his heir, who was Secretary of State to William III

William III of England

William III was a Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 onwards, he governed as List_of_stadtholders_for_the_Low_Countries_provinces William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic....
, in 1689, because the King wanted a residence near London but away from the smoky air of the capital, because he was asthmatic. At that time Kensington was a suburban village location outside London, but more accessible than Hampton Court, a water journey on the Thames. A private road was laid out from the Palace to Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner is a place in London, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park, London. It is a major intersection where Park Lane , Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Grosvenor Place and Constitution Hill, London converge....
, broad enough for several carriages to travel abreast, part of which survives today as Rotten Row

Rotten Row

Rotten Row is a broad track running along the south side of Hyde Park, London in London, leading from Hyde Park Corner to the west. In its heyday in the 18th century, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper-class Londoners to be seen....
. The Palace was improved and extended by Sir Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren was a 17th century England designer, astronomer, geometer, and one of the greatest English architects in history. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note....
with pavilions attached to each corner of the central block, for it now needed paired Royal Apartments approached by the Great Stairs, a council chamber, and the Chapel Royal. Then, when Wren re-oriented the house to face west, he built north and south wings to flank the approach, made into a proper cour d'honneur
Cour d'Honneur

Cour d'Honneur, sometimes literally translated as "Court of Honour", is the architecture term for defining a three-sided courtyard, created when the main central block, or corps de logis, is flanked by symmetrical advancing secondary wings, containing minor rooms....
that was entered through an archway surmounted by a clock tower. Nevertheless, as a private domestic retreat, it was referred to as Kensington House, rather than 'Palace'. The walled kitchen gardens at Kensington House supplied fruits and vegetables for the Court of St. James's

Court of St. James's

The Court of St. James's is the name of the royal court of the United Kingdom....
.

For seventy years, Kensington Palace was the favored residence of British monarchs, although the official seat of the Court was and remains at St. James's

St. James's Palace

St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated on Pall Mall, London in London, just north of St. James's Park....
which has not been the actual royal residence in London since the 17th century. Queen Mary

Mary II of England

Mary II reigned as List of English monarchs, List of Scottish monarchs, and King of Ireland from 1689 until her death. Mary, a Protestantism, came to the thrones following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of her Roman Catholic father, James II of England....
died of smallpox in Kensington Palace in 1694. In 1702 William suffered a fall from a horse at Hampton Court and was brought to Kensington Palace, where he shortly died. After William III's death, the palace became the residence of Queen Anne

Anne of Great Britain

Anne became Queen of England, Queen of Scots and Kingdom of Ireland on 8 March 1702, succeeding her brother-in-law, William III of England. Her Roman Catholic father, James II of England, was Glorious Revolution in 1688/9; her brother-in-law and her sister then became joint monarchs as William III & II and Mary II of England, the only such c...
. Sir John Vanbrugh

John Vanbrugh

Sir John Vanbrugh was an England architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedy, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites but originally occasioned much controversy....
designed the Orangery

Orangery

An orangery was a building frequently found in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th century and given a classicising architectural form....
for her in 1704, and a magnificent baroque parterre

Parterre

A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedge , and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern....
30 acre (121,000 m²) garden was laid out by Henry Wise

Henry Wise

Henry Wise was an England gardener, designer, and nurseryman. He was apprenticed to George London , working at Brompton Nursery, on the present site of the Royal Albert Hall and the museums of South Kensington, London....
, whose nursery was nearby at Brompton (illustration, left).

George I spent lavishly on new royal apartments from 1718. William Kent

William Kent

William Kent was an eminent England architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th century....
painted a staircase and some ceilings. In 1722 he designed the Cupola Room, the principal state room, with feigned coffering in its high coved ceiling; in 1819 the Cupola Room was the site of the christening of Princess Alexandrina Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was from 20 June 1837 the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and from 1 May 1876 the first Empress of India of the British Raj until her death....
, who had been born at Kensington, in the apartments of the Duke and Duchess of Kent (the actual room being what is now the North Drawing Room).

The last reigning monarch to use Kensington Palace was George II. For his consort, Charles Bridgeman

Charles Bridgeman

Charles Bridgeman was an English garden designer in the onset of the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres and avenues to a freer style that incorporated formal, structural and wilderness elements, Bridgeman is a somewhat obs...
swept away the outmoded parterres and redesigned Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens

Serpentine (lake)

The Serpentine is a 28 acre Artificial lake#Recreational in Hyde Park, London, England, created in 1730. Although it is common to refer to the entire body of water as the Serpentine, strictly the name refers only to the eastern half of the lake....
, the basin called the Round Pond, and the Broad Walk. After George II's death in the palace in 1760, Kensington Palace was only used for more minor Royalty, including the young daughter of the Duke of Kent who was living in the Palace with her widowed mother when she was told of her accession to the throne as Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Mary of Teck

Mary of Teck was the queen consort of George V of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India. Before her husband's accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales....
(grandmother of the present Queen) was born at Kensington Palace in 1867.

In 1981 apartments 8 and 9 were combined to create the London residence of the newly married Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles

Charles, Prince of Wales

The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the eldest child of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, making him heir apparent, equally and separately, to the thrones of Commonwealth realm....
and Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales , are second and third Line of succession to the British throne of the British monarchy and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms....
, and it remained the official residence of Diana, Princess of Wales after her divorce until her death. Her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, went to local nursery and pre-preparatory schools in Notting Hill

Notting Hill

Notting Hill is an area in West London, England close to the north-western corner of Hyde Park, London, and lying within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea....
, which is a short drive away.

The nearest tubes are in Queensway

Queensway tube station

Queensway is a London Underground station, just inside the boundary of the City of Westminster with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea....
, Bayswater, High Street Kensington

High Street Kensington tube station

High Street Kensington is a London Underground station at Kensington High Street.The station is on the Circle line between Gloucester Road tube station and Notting Hill Gate tube station, and the District Line between Earl's Court tube station and Notting Hill Gate tube station....
, or (slightly further) Gloucester Road

Gloucester Road tube station

Gloucester Road is a London Underground station in South Kensington. It is served by the District Line, Circle line and Piccadilly Line Lines. On the District and Piccadilly lines the station is between South Kensington tube station and Earl's Court tube station, and on the Circle Line it is between South Kensington tube station and High Str...
.

The State Rooms are managed by the Historic Royal Palaces

Historic Royal Palaces

The Historic Royal Palaces Agency is a public body created in 1989 to manage United Kingdom's unoccupied royal palaces. These are:* The Tower of London...
Agency. The offices and private accommodation areas of the Palace remain the responsibility of the Royal Household and are maintained by the Royal Household Property Section.

It is a notable feature that since senior members of the Royal family no longer reside at the palace, both state of the art security systems and cameras and the presence of armed or unarmed metropolitan police officers are no longer utilised at the palace.

This was a decision to reinforce the reality that the palace is open to the public. The main gate of the palace is also now a major throughfare into the palace and its exhibitions and displays.

The palace was featured in the BBC documentary series Tales from the Palaces

Tales from the Palaces

Tales from the Palaces is a ten-part series filmed over a year with the conservation teams inside Britain's Historic Royal Palaces: Hampton Court Palace, The Tower of London, Kensington Palace, The Banqueting House, Whitehall and Kew Palace....
.

Kensington Palace

History

See also

External links