Visiting Kensington Palace

Living in London for many years, we've walked past Kensington Palace at least 1,294 times. Clutching ill-gotten snacks, sunning ourselves in the enormous park, exploring tube oddities such as the fake terrace in Leinster Gardens, sipping tea in the afternoon with fellow blog-addicts, discovering the Grade II listed stump known as the Elfin Oak. All of these, and every single time I've said 'I really want to visit Kensington Palace, I should do it sometime.'

 

This is a sure sign of taking a city for granted - taking more than 5 years to get my permatourist butt into gear, and walk through those gates. We've made our way around the others - nearly vaulting into the thrones at Buckingham Palace, sipped tea with the Queen whilst hatted, taken part in ancient key ceremonies with Royal Guardsmen, taken overseas friends to Windsor, discovered royal cottages tucked in amongst Bluebells, explored Hampton Court Palace, spent hours in the Tower of London, but still walked past Kensington Palace again and again. Talk about a fail.

Kensington Palace feels like a grown-ups version of a dolls house. Perfectly proportioned from one angle, exquisitely gilded unicorns prance over ironwork gates, then you turn towards the visitors entrance. Security won't let you into the private living quarters of Prince William, Kate and cherubic George, but the rest is open for visitors (of the paying rather than just privileged kind) which have been admired since Queen Victoria opened the floors to the public in 1899.
 

Each area seems rather distinctly set up in a labyrinthine way, set into dollhouse like sections. Perfectly manicured stages, set to display Royal history.

The dial positioned over the fireplace is still connected to a wind-vane on the roof so that the King could see which way the wind was blowing, - See more at: http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/stories/kingsgallery#sthash.ozQxi1Ee.dpuf

The dial positioned over the fireplace is still connected to a wind-vane on the roof so that the King could see which way the wind was blowing, - See more at: http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/stories/kingsgallery#sthash.ozQxi1Ee.dpuf

The dial positioned over the fireplace is still connected to a wind-vane on the roof so that the King could see which way the wind was blowing, - See more at: http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/stories/kingsgallery#sthash.ozQxi1Ee.dpuf

A hallway is filled with portraits of Diana, Princess of Hearts.

The opulent Kings Staircase with Trompe L'Oeil has children peeping through balustrades...

... leading to the King's Galleries where fine art hangs and a dial positioned over the fireplace is still connected to a wind-vane on the roof so that the King William III could see which way the wind was blowing.

Queen Mary II's apartments are selectively filled with fine furniture including beautiful Delft porcelein and secret doorways.

A 'Fashion Rules' exhibit currently displays a glittering wardrobe of royal dresses (complete with manly sitting area - they really need to set up a pub bar) and a Victoriana exhibition displaying the lighter side of childhood for one the most infamously stony faced Queens

For this post, I'm blaming Amanda whose Kensington Palace exploration finally convinced me to go. There are a few really good 2 for 1 deals you can get to visit - but I've learned that if you go on your own no-one can complain at how many photos you stop and take... mwahahaha!

It's a nice, couple of hours wander through history.

Have you been?