Kensington Palace, London

Thank you for coming to read our blog post about Kensington Palace, London.

A bit of History about Kensington Palace, London

Located in the 265 acres of Kensington Gardens which sits directly west of Hyde Park Kensington Palace is arguably most famous for being the home of Diana Princess of Wales before her death in 1997. It is the current home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and Kate) as well as Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

Prince Harry and Megan chose to announce their engagement in the sunken gardens at the Palace.

Kensington Palace came about when King William and Queen Mary asked Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral, to turn Nottingham House into a Palace. His extension is largely what remains today.

Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace and lived there until 1837. Diana Princess of Wales had an apartment at the palace from 1981 to 1997. Speaking of Princess Diana, until 2nd January 2022 her wedding dress is on display in the Orangery at the Palace, as well as some other outfits. It’s 100% worth a visit to the Palace just to see the dress.

How to get to Kensington Palace, London

We drove to Kensington Palace using our electric Car, and parked just outside of Kensington Gardens at Q-Park Queensway. I pre booked the evening before and got a 5 hour visit for £20. As we have an electric car we currently don’t pay any of the Low Emission or Congestion Charge fees for London.

Address:

Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, London W8 4PX

The nearest Underground Stations are:

• Lancaster Gate & Queensway (Central Line)
• Bayswater (District Line)
• High Street Kensington (Circle and District Lines)

For full details check the TFL website here.

Once we’d parked we walked the 10 minutes through the Park to the Palace.

Visiting Kensington Palace

Upon arrival at the Palace we stood in a short queue outside where someone checked our tickets. We then walked through to the bag check area. After this we asked for somewhere to leave my daughters buggy and we were shown a side room for it (they didn’t seem to have a designated buggy room which is odd, but they were more than happy for me to leave it in this side room). We then headed up the (beautiful) stairs to the jewel room and the rooms dedicated to Queen Victoria’s childhood at the Palace.

Even my 3 year old found the rooms interesting, marvelling at the huge dolls house and puppet theatre. We often found it was just us in the rooms which was nice. This floor included the room where Queen Victoria was born in 1819.

Next was the King’s State Apartments from the Georgian Period in the 1700s. There is also the Queens State Apartments where Queen Mary died of smallpox in 1694. She lived here with her husband King William III.

The Route was one way through the Palace and it was clear where you could and couldn’t go, there was always a helper nearby if you did need them.

Royal Style in the Making Exhibition

After we had finished in the main part of the Palace we were shown to the Orangery which is a seperate building a few minutes walk away. Inside is the ‘Royal Style in the Making’ Exhibition which is housed in a stunning bright white room and includes the wedding dress of Diana Princess of Wales from her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.

I hadn’t really expected to like the dress all that much, it is incredibly 80s after all! But the detail is exquisite and really blew me away. It’s absolutely worth a visit while this exhibiton is on until 2nd January 2022.

Once we had finished there we headed back to the main Palace. By this time, about midday, there was a significant queue outside the Palace, so I think choosing an early time slot paid off for us.

We decided to sit on a bench over looking the Palace to eat our lunch and it was really lovely. In one direction was the stunning Kensington Gardens and the other was the beautiful Palace. Its a really nice touch that there are so many places to sit and eat a picnic.

There is also a cafe within the Palace, with outdoor seating and it looked a nice place to relax in the sunshine.

The Café sells a range of hot drinks, refreshments, sandwiches, cakes and ice cream.

The Pavilion, which looked beautiful, offers Breakfast, Lunch and Afternoon tea. It looked very smart and would be lovely as a treat.

Diana Memorial Playground

After we’d finished at the Palace we headed a few minutes through the park to the Diana Memorial Playground. I’m so pleased we did as it was BRILLIANT. Free to enter, it is a complete oasis in the middle of the City. It’s huge with lots of individual areas of play equipment, and something to keep every type of child occupied. There is a sensory trail, teepees, a beach around the pirate ship and various toys and play sculptures; all set against a backdrop of trees and plants. There’s lots of seating too for the adults…something I’m always grateful for!

There are covid-19 precautions in place and if it gets too busy then there is a queue system to get in. When we were there, on a Friday lunchtime, is was pretty quiet. The whole park is themed around Peter Pan and his adventures, look closely and it all makes sense!

The main area is the pirate ship (the water features are not running at the moment due to Covid) and it was fantastic.

There is also a cafe at the park which was popular whilst we were there. They serve an extensive hot food menu that includes pizza, plenty of healthy and vegetarian options as well as a broad kids range.

There are also toilets, including disabled and baby change facilities.

Opening times

• May to August: 10.00 – 19.45
• April and September: 10.00 – 18.45
• March and early October: 10.00 – 17.45
• February and late October: 10.00 – 16.45
• November to January: 10.00 – 15.45

Please note that the last entry is 15 minutes prior to closing time.

Summary

I’m really pleased we made the trip up to Kensington Palace. It’s a lovely location for a day out and you can easily find plenty of other things within Kensington Gardens to fill your day up, we didn’t manage all of it by a long stretch!

Thank you for reading our blog on Kensington Palace, London. If you’d like to read more about visiting London with children then read our blog post here on 10 free things to do in London with Kids.