Everything you need to know about visiting Kensington Palace
A new, youthful court is evolving at Kensington Palace in leafy West London, rudely nicknamed the ‘Aunt Heap’ by a former Prince of Wales because of the number of faded royals inhabiting its labyrinthine corridors. In the 20th century it housed the glamorous Snowdens and their Sixties set and later Prince Charles and Diana and their young sons.
Today the boys are back: William and Kate inhabit Apartment 1a with Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and Prince Harry has a cottage in the grounds. For the rest of us, the working royal palace is walled off and we have access to the complex historical bit. Kensington, by the way, doesn’t look very palace-y, more like a redbrick mansion, which it was until converted from a Jacobean house into a palace by Christopher Wren and spruced up by William Kent. It has a quiet charm that repays some time and exploration.
History-wise it saw the last of the Stuarts and the first of the Georgians, not to mention a lonely young Queen Victoria, who escaped its confines the minute she became Queen. It’s not a palace full of stuff and therefore it works hard with the things it does have.
How to get there
Underground: It’s a 10-minute walk from Notting Hill tube to the north west and from High Street Kensington station in south west - and numerous buses trundle along the Bayswater Road (north) and Kensington Gore (south). See tfl.gov.uk.
Walk: On a nice day it’s worth walking from Hyde Park Corner (45 plus minutes).
Tour or no tour?
There are no audio tours, but look out for evening and daytime events and school holiday activities. Blue Badge Tourist Guides do private tours britainsbestguides.org or guidelondon.org.uk. Children can download the app Digital Mission, set in 1735.
Highlights for adults
Right now, Diana: Her Fashion Story (closes February 28 2018) is pulling huge numbers of people into the palace, resulting in long queues at peak times. It shows 25 of Diana’s outfits in a display both fascinating and moving: there are squeaks of recognition as people spot famous dresses - and it shows clearly how her style matured.
Victoria Revealed: the young princess was christened in the Cupola Room (she was called Alexandrina, not Victoria) and brought up strictly in the palace. She had her first glimpse of Prince Albert from the pink staircase and this part of the palace has masses of ‘stuff’, from her painting set and wedding dress to records of his work on the Great Exhibition. Her dolls’ house (including a family of homemade dolls) and the tiny shoes and teething corals belonging to her nine children, are charming.
Talk to the excellent re-enactors, who are to be found gossiping, playing cards or arguing in full court dress, usually on high days or holidays. They know their stuff, whether it’s gambling or lacing a corset: you may find yourself part of the act.
Highlights for children
The King’s Staircase always mesmerises smaller visitors, not only because it’s entirely taken up with a mural showing courtiers and servants – a 17th-century version of Hello! – but you can spot Peter the Wild Boy (an autistic child who was found wandering in woods near Hanover and brought to court where he proved a great novelty), and numerous dogs - and you can try to read what the women are saying in the ‘language of the fan’ .
Take your photo (selfies are difficult) standing behind court dress – brocade and breeches for men, idiotically wide mantuas for women – ingeniously fashioned from paper. They’re usually in the Cupola Room, where Victoria was christened.
As you exit the palace, turn left up the Wiggly Walk – a gratifying zig-zag of beech hedge – then turn right into Kensington Gardens to find one of Diana’s finest memorials, the free Diana Princess of Wales Playground, with its pirate ship and outdoor ‘playrooms’. See royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/diana-memorial-playground.
Best time to visit
After lunch, about 3pm in summer and 2pm in winter, when most of the large groups have gone but you still have a clear two hours left. Also worth catching is the Enlightened Princesses exhibition, closing on November 12, which focuses on three often ignored, highly cultivated women of the Georgian era, namely Caroline, Augusta and Charlotte.
Where to eat
There’s a café adjoining the shop with outdoor seating, good for a snack as you stagger out of the palace. For lunch or tea try The Orangery – a historic building in itself as it was built to house Queen Anne’s citrus trees. I hear wildly differing reports of this restaurant: I’ve always found it fine, if not thrilling, but I’ve heard raves and rages. It’s a 10-minute walk to some excellent pubs and restaurants off Kensington Church Street.
Best view
Looking out of the window in the King’s Drawing Room, the ultimate career high for many a greasy Georgian courtier, as the sun catches the Round Pond directly to the east.
Palace tips
Adults: see the rare, working, 17th-century wind dial in William III’s Great Gallery. Children: Funtastic Saturdays take place on the last Saturday of each month for children aged 13 and under, and Tiny Explorers offers stories and soft play for under 4s.
Costs/contacts/opening hours
Kensington Palace (020 3166 6000; hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace) opens 10am to 6pm daily (4pm winter). Last entry an hour before closure. Closed December 24 to 26. Online tickets £15.50 adults, concessions £12.30 (excluding voluntary donation) and Under-16s accompanying a paying adult, free.
Telephone bookings (0844 482 7799) incur a £2 fee per booking.
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