Kensington Palace - History

History

The original early 17th-century building was constructed in the village of Kensington as Nottingham House for Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham. It was acquired from his heir, who was Secretary of State to William III, 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, broad enough for several carriages to travel abreast, part of which survives today as Rotten Row. The Palace was improved and extended by Sir Christopher Wren 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. Wren re-oriented the house to face west, building north and south wings to flank the approach, made into a proper cour d'honneur 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.

For seventy years, Kensington Palace was the favoured residence of British monarchs, although the official seat of the Court was and remains at St. James's which has not been the actual royal residence in London since the 17th century. Queen Mary II 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 died shortly after. After William III's death, the palace became the residence of Queen Anne. Sir John Vanbrugh designed the Orangery for her in 1704, and a magnificent baroque parterre 30 acre (121,000 m2) garden was laid out by Henry Wise, whose nursery was nearby at Brompton (illustration, left). Anne also had Christopher Wren to complete the extensions that William and Mary had begun, resulting in the section known as the Queen's Apartments, with the Wren staircase, known as "The Queen's Entrance", which currently serves as the exit point, with shallow steps so that Queen Anne could walk down gracefully.

George I spent lavishly on new royal apartments from 1718. William Kent 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, 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 swept away the outmoded parterres and redesigned Kensington Gardens in a form that is still recognizable today: his remaining features are The Serpentine, 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. Queen Mary (grandmother of the present Queen) was born at Kensington Palace in 1867. Her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Teck, were living at the palace. Edward VIII called the palace an "aunt heap" because of the number of royal relatives residing there.

In 1981, apartments 8 and 9 were combined to create the London residence of the newly married Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, and it remained the official residence of Diana, Princess of Wales after her divorce until her death. Her sons, Princes William and Harry, went to local nursery and pre-preparatory schools in Notting Hill, which is a short drive away, and were raised in Kensington Palace, which was a "children's paradise" according to Andrew Morton, with long passageways, a helicopter pad, and many outdoor gardens, including one on the roof where the family spent many hours.

Diana, Princess of Wales's coffin spent its last night in London at the Palace, before the Princess's funeral at the Westminster Abbey on 6 September 1997.

In 2008, it was announced that to continue living from 2010 in their previously-subsidised Apartment 10, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent would be required to begin paying rent of £120,000 a year, the market rate of the five-bedroom, five-reception flat, rather than the nominal amount of £70 per week they had been paying for the previous seven years. Elizabeth II had previously been subsidising the £10,000 a month cost for the Kents to use their flat. Members of Parliament on the palaces committee had demanded the change after the Kents' rent had come to light. The Kents have lived in the apartment since 1979, only paying their utility bills prior to 2002. Other minor members of the royal family who reside at the palace are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

The palace was featured in the BBC documentary series Tales from the Palaces and is now home to the Enchanted Palace exhibition. During Halloween weekend 2011, the Historic Royal Palaces conducted nighttime Eerie Evening Tours of Enchanted Palace, highlighting mysterious sights and sounds within the palace's State Rooms, as referenced in the warders' log book over the centuries.

• The King's Gallery at Kensington Palace, from The History of the Royal Residences by W. H. Pyne (1819)

• Kensington Palace

• Kensington Palace in 2012

• Kensington Palace Orangery