London Residence of Other Members of the Royal Family
Kensington Palace is sited in Kensington Gardens and is a working royal residence of members of the Royal Family. It has served this function since the 17th century and has great historical importance. Many successive British Sovereigns have lived there including Queen Victoria who was born at the palace. Today it is the official London residence of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, (Prince William, his wife Katherine and their three children), and three of the Queen’s first cousins with their wives, namely, the Duck and Duchess of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Princess and Princess Michael of Kent.
In the more recent past, Kensington Palace was also the home to Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales after their wedding in 1981 and it was where Prince William and Prince Harry grew up. After her divorce Diana continued to live there. Also, before moving first to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor and then on to California, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan (the Duke and Duchess of Sussex) lived in the Palace in an apartment next-door to his brother. Princess Eugenie, one of the daughters of the Duke of York, (Prince Andrew) lived there before moving to Frogmore Cottage after Prince Harry moved out. Princess Margaret lived there with her husband Lord Snowdon and they brought their family up there.
Parts of the Palace are open to the public and although not as grand as Buckingham Palace you can visit the magnificent King’s State Apartments, the Queen’s State Apartments and walk in the footsteps of a young Queen Victoria.
History:
Built in 1605 the house was a simple Jacobean mansion called Nottingham House. In the 17th century Kensington was a fairly rural village on the outskirts of London. The first Royals to live in the building were King William III and his wife, Queen Mary II. The damp, polluted air of London exacerbated William’s asthma and they moved to this more bucolic area, buying Nottingham House and immediately beginning on its expansion and improvement. Employing the services of the renowned architect, Christopher Wren, a three-storey pavilion was added as well as new wings to the north and south of the existing house. Wren surrounded the, now, Kensington Palace with lawns and flower gardens. It was a much loved home for both of them and they enthusiastically enjoyed creating their new London residence. However, when Mary died of smallpox in 1694, William lost the motivation to further the development of the Palace. After his death in 1702 the next monarch to reign, Mary’s sister Anne, moved in. Queen Anne preferred to live most of her time in Hampton Court Palace but she did make some extensive improvements to the design of the gardens. In particular she commissioned Christopher Wren, this time with Nicholas Hawksmoor, to design the beautiful baroque Orangery and Henry Wise to design a parterre garden. This was fashionable at the time and was a formal kind of garden on one level, created from beds of colourful flowers, enclosed by box hedges in an intricate design with each bed being separated by a gravel path. The Orangery was further enhanced by the architect, John Vanbrugh, who magnified its beauty by adding carvings by Grinling Gibbons and elegant columns. Queen Anne used Kensington Palace mostly for entertaining and held many parties in the Orangery. The Queen’s Apartments in the house today refer to Queen Anne.
After the death of Queen Anne, the next monarch to take up residence in Kensington Palace was George I. Both he and Queen Charlotte found Kensington Palace to be a very satisfactory and beautiful place to live. He spent lavishly on new Royal Apartments, enlarging and renovating them and filling the rooms with wonderful artwork and fine furniture. He commissioned the architect and painter, William Kent to carry out some of this work. The beautiful painted ceiling in the King’s Drawing Room and those lining the walls and ceiling of the King’s Staircase are Kents. The Staircase, in particular, is especially magnificent. It has a spectacular wrought iron balustrade and on the walls and ceiling are life-sized portrayals of members of the court of George I. On the passing of George I, his son, George II lived there with his Queen, Caroline. The Royal couple gave lavish parties and receptions at the Palace and the Queen, who was interested in cultural arts and science, held intellectual soirees there, inviting prominent members from these disciplines. Whilst George II didn’t make any structural changes to the building some changes were made in the grounds. George II thought the parterre gardens were dated and removed them. He installed the round pond, The Serpentine, the Broad Walk and the avenues which now make up what is Kensington Gardens. This created a different orientation to the palace with the east front, which faced the new park, becoming more important than the southern front which faced the former parterre.
George II died in 1760 at Kensington Palace and was the last reigning monarch to use the palace as their main London home. The next monarch, his son, George III, disliked Kensington Palace and did not want to live there. He began a tradition that is still carried on today of using Kensington Palace as a home for minor members of the Royal Family, granting them apartments within the palace. This included two of his sons, Prince Augustus Frederick, duke of Sussex – who had a large library built that filled ten of the rooms – and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, who was the father of Queen Victoria. The then Princess Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in 1819 and remained there until she became Queen in 1837. Within the walls of the palace she was brought up in what became known as ‘the Kensington system’, in preparation for a possible future role of Queen of England. Amongst other things, this ‘system’ meant that she was not allowed to mix with any children of her own age, not allowed to leave the palace grounds, unable to read or study certain books nor walk down staircases without holding the hand of an adult. In 1837, her uncle, William IV died and she became queen, leaving Kensington Palace to live at Buckingham Palace.
From thence on, Kensington Palace remained as a home to minor royals. This included two of Queen Victoria’s daughters, one of which was Princess Louisa who was a very talented sculptor and it was she who created the statue of Queen Victoria which stands on the West Front of Kensington Palace. In 1899 Queen Victoria opened up the State Apartments of Kensington Palace to the general public and, to give the royal occupants some privacy, a privacy hedge was created separating the public park from the private garden. The function of Kensington Palace has remained partially open to the public and partially home to minor royals ever since that day.
Residents: Recent Past and Present.
The State Apartments of the Palace, which face Kensington Gardens are the ones that are open to the public. During the London Blitz in World War Two the palace suffered quite severe damage. In 1960 the Department of the Environment oversaw its renovation . It was refurbished in 2011 at a cost of £12m and, again, in 20212 there was a redevelopment of the east front that restored the visual link with the Round Pond and the baroque avenues. The massive recent redevelopment included removal of the bomb damage that had occurred during the war.
However, those State Apartments that are not open to the public are home to members of the extended Royal Family, with a handful of retired military personnel and staff also living in some of the apartments, as well as a small number of ordinary citizens who pay a market rent for their royal dwelling. Altogether the palace is home to 50 residents. The current Royals who reside there are outlined below.
Apartment 1. Used to be the home of Prince Harry and Meghan before moving to Windsor and then on to America. This apartment has an adjoining door to Apartment 1A – the home of Prince William and his family.
Apartment 1A. As can be seen, although called an apartment these dwellings are more like small mansions within an apartment block. Apartment 1A covers four floors and has twenty rooms. In all there are three main bedrooms. five reception rooms, a day and a night nursery, dressing rooms and spacious staff quarters. It used to be the family home of Princess Margaret but since 2017 it has been the London residence of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and his wife Katherine) with their three young children.
Apartment 1A is supposed to be the most haunted residence in the palace. Through the centuries there have been many sightings of ghosts, including sightings made by King George II and Queen Mary II. More recently however the sightings seem to have occurred in the late 1970s when Princess Margaret lived there. At least two of the hauntings were experienced by Princess Margaret’s housekeeper who purports to have seen a figure of a woman in Regency dress in the hallway of the Drawing Room. The second incident was when rooms on the top floor were used as staff accommodation and both the housekeeper and the butler, who were the only people in the building at the time, were woken by a terrible scream in the middle of the night
Apartments 8 & 9. In 1981 these two apartments were combined to create a London residence for the Prince of Wales and his new bride, Princess Diana. There two sons, William and Harry, were raised there and attended nursery and school close by. After their divorce, Diana Princess of Wales remained living in Apartment 8 & 9. The Princess’ biographer, Andrew Norton, alleges that the palace was a paradise for the children with long passageways, a helicopter pad, and extensive gardens to play in which included a roof garden. Today, the apartment is mainly occupied by palace staff although part of it is used by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as office space.
Apartment 10 This five-bedroom, five-reception room apartment is home to Prince Michael of Kent and his wife Princess Michael. The couple have lived in the palace since the seventies and were once neighbours with Diana, Princess of Wales, who lived next door at combined Apartment 8 and 9.
The Kents, who do not undertake duties or engagements for the Queen in an official capacity, came under fire in the 2000s when it was revealed that they do not pay rent. Her Majesty had been paying her cousin’s £120,000 rent, while he and his wife only took care of the weekly utility bill. Members of parliament demanded that they start paying their £10,000-a-month market rate rent in 2002
Cottages in the Grounds
Ivy Cottage: Princess Eugenie and her husband lived for a short time in Ivy Cottage in the grounds of the Palace before moving into Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan.
Wren House: Next door to Princess Eugenie and her new husband are the Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Kent, and his wife Katherine. Their modest two-storey cottage, which once housed palace staff, overlooks a walled garden and is slightly detached from the palace. It was named after Sir Christopher Wren, the palace’s chief restorer.
Visiting Kensington Palace.
One of the many reasons to visit Kensington Palace is its depth of royal history. Kings and Queens have made it their London residence from the 17th century until the start of the reign of Queen Victoria. Whilst on the tour inside the palace you will learn much about the lives of these Sovereigns. Sadly, there is much tragedy. King William III was grief stricken when his queen succumbed to smallpox, dying at the palace at the young age of 32. Her sister, Queen Anne had 17 pregnancies but only one child lived past infancy – only for this child, William, to also die of smallpox when he was 11. Queen Victoria was born here, losing her father at a young age and being traumatised by the dreadful upbringing of the ‘Kensington System’. Princess Margaret and Princess Diana both lived here and saw their marriages fail. Hopefully, happier times are around the corner for the young Duke an Duchess of Cambridge.
On visiting Kensington Palace the first thing you see notice are the iconic Golden Gates, which were the focus of public grief when Princess Diana died in 1997. Mourners covered the gates and a huge area in front of them with flowers.
Once inside the palace there are several routes which take you around the rooms, concentrating on the Kings and Queens that have lived there. You can explore the rooms where Queen Victoria was born and raised, walk through the King’s State Apartments and the Queen’s State Apartments as well as visit some of the special exhibitions that are put on. Some of these include the exhibit of some spectacular tiaras, one fabulous emerald one that Prince Albert designed for Queen Victoria along with matching necklace, earrings and brooch. On display too is the Kokoshnik tiara and the breath-taking Fife tiara both belonging to Princess Louise, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Until January 2022 there is also an exhibition of fashion and design that the Royal Family have enjoyed which includes Princess Diana’s wedding dress.
Another reason to visit Kensington Palace is for the Gardens, in particular the 18th century style Sunken Garden with its flower beds, ornamental pond and fountains. It was in this garden that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement in 2017 and the newest addition to the garden is the statue of Princess Diana with her two sons which was unveiled in the summer of 2021. There is a cafe and a shop in the Orangery.
Allow a couple of hours to fully enjoy the Palace and then spend some time in Kensington Gardens where you can go boating on the lake and children can marvel at the famous statue of Peter Pan or play on the pirate ship in the Diana Memorial Playground. It is a good idea to hire a Santander Cycle to ride through the Gardens and up to Hyde Park. Docking stations are close by and the cost is £2 for 30 minutes.
Kensington Palace is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10.00-18.00
Ticket prices are £19.50 for adults and £9.70 for a child.
Tickets can be booked on the Kensington Palace website: Historic Royal Palaces