Me in front of the palace

Today I've finished a book about Kensington Palace and its history; a book I bought inside the palace when I visited it last April. At first, I thought it was an ordinary guide book telling you where to go, what to see in the palace, and how to manage your visit and to learn some brief information about the royal families that lived there. Luckily the book was more than that and it led me to write some about the palace.

Kensington is a place where you can go and see inside it freely - only some parts of it of course! As an example for the popular royals we know, Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Diana had lived there during their marriage, and only after their separation, Charles moved out and Diana stayed in the palace. Now the palace has become a home for the popular couple, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his beautiful wife Catherine Middleton (Kate Middleton as we all call her most of the time). 

The palace has been home for countless royals, but most important of all, Princess Victoria (of Albert) grew up here and spend some time afterwards with her husband. Also this is where she met her husband Albert and fell in love.

The palace was named as Nottingham House earlier; a mansion only, but was purchased by King William III and Queen Mary II as a new place to live in. The mansion, then, costed  £20.000. Sir Christopher Wren was the architect who changed all the design of the mansion and transformed it into a royal palace for the couple. Later, Queen Anne added an Orangery to the gardens, which is one of the most remarkable buildings of the palace, where the oranges of Queen Anne had been kept during the cold winters. The building is still there to see.

the Queen's Gallery

The King's State Apartments are worth seeing. The King's staircase is the first link to the circuit of rooms making up the King's State Apartment. Keep in mind that this staircase was once where the visitors of the palace went upstairs to meet the King or his officials. You must stop there to explore the environment as there are a lot of masterpieces; wall frescoes (frescoes are only on walls but anyway...), sculptures, iconic statues and ceiling drawings... All have stories but you would better get a guide book before entering the palace, because I would not be able to end this post if I had to start telling them all!

Most of the rooms are empty, which indicates that these rooms were being used as meeting rooms or ballrooms where people who are closer to the royal family met and danced till the morning. Besides, these rooms were used as meeting points as a celebration area after special events, such as baptism of a prince or princess or mournings for royal members.

William Kent was the painter of the palace, and did a really good job; the King appreciated his works a lot while other painters tried to insult him about his paintings as a result of their jealousy. I recommend you to observe the magnificent ceiling in the Privy Chamber, which was Queen Caroline's favourite entertaining space, to see Mars, the Roman god of War and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, painted by William Kent. There is a strange object right in the middle of the room; a clock, a music box that play Handel. The pictures on the sides depict four monarchies from antiquity. 

The Cupola Room is the most splendidly-decorated room in the palace, which marks a great new beginning in the history of design. William Kent had lived in Italy for about ten years, and when he came back, his artworks included an Italian effect, which changed all the design standards not only in the palace but also in the whole country. So this room is where it all started. Lastly, this is the room where Princess Victoria's baptism was celebrated in 1819.

The Queen's state apartments were lower-key and plainer than the King's. There, you can see Turkish carpets, embroidered hangings and lacquer furniture. Queen Mary's obsession about porcelain led her to collect many pieces, and there were over 150 pieces in the room where now the Queen's Gallery is presented. The Queen's Drawing Room, Eating Room and Bedroom, all are located on this side of the palace. The famous story about Queen Anne and her ex-best friend Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough also happened in these apartments. After talking to her friend Sarah Churchill for the last time, the queen rejected talking to her again. The reason is still unknown.

The palace has a part named "Victoria Revealed", where you can see her early life and family life in details; her clothing when she was a kid and her nine children's dresses and shoes, the Red Saloon where she had her first official meeting when her Uncle died, the drawings she made of her lovely children, the mourning room that tells more about Albert's unexpected death and many more. Besides these, you can see a statue of Queen Victoria, done by her talented daughter Princess Louise, that stands in the garden at the moment. 

Royal family members of 20th century like Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent and Princess Margaret and her husband Lord Snowdon preferred living a modest life in the palace, so they changed their apartments in the direction of the modern design of that times. Kensington Palace is also where the Duke of Edinburgh left for his wedding to Princess Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey in 1947.

Kensington had been a home for Prince Charles and Princess Diana during their marriage and Princes William and Herry were often taken to the gardens of the palace by their mother young Princess Diana. 

Today, the palace is a home for the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate use the palace as their London home.

The palace has a great exhibition of clothing wore by royal family, mostly from the 18th century; where you can see real mantuas (formal, wide skirted dresses), suits, waistcoats, baby dresses and shoes (mostly clothes of Victoria's nine children) and many more...

The palace garden has a cafe and shopping store as well as its public green areas where you can wander and see beautiful flowers - especially do not forget to see the statue of Victoria in the East Front gardens, done by her daughter!

For more information, please visit the Historic Royal Palaces