Probably best known as the place that Princess Diana was living when she tragically died, and had been since her marriage and separation from Prince Charles, Kensington Palace is actually a massive complex with some 700 rooms and many parts of the Royal Family have or are living there. So it is not so much as a palace as a gated housing development!

When public live in the Palace it seems they have a number of rooms, and the residential parts are the ones that cannot easily been seen from the gates and boundaries.


The Palace itself is extremely old, not surprisingly, and in addition to being known as the home of Princess Diana was plus the home of Princess Margaret ( whose very 60s style decoration is apparently still in place and the rooms are going to be open to the public as part of a major Kensington Palace 2012 revamp currently under way. Some of Queen Elizabeth’s cousins qnd their families live there still.


The grounds of the palace are not huge, but in a great location surrounded by Kensington Gardens. In the actual grounds is a beautiful formal garden and next large lawns with a large and very beautiful Organery building that houses a restaurant that as well as serving lunch, serves various afternoon tea options.. These involve tier holders with sandwiches, cakes and scones and different teas. We were given gift vouchers as a birthday gift which gave us entry to the “Enchanted Palace” exhibition and champagne afternoon tea at the Orangery.


As the pictures show, the room is brilliant, large, bright and stylish. The afternoon tea great. Though you cannot reserve a instance and table and the line to get in can be slow and involve hanging about a great deal.


The exhibition in the Palace takes you through about 30 rooms and is themed around the story whether princesses and enchantment. You get thus hand drawn effect sheet to guide you round. And to be honest I think it was all a bit too arty. It was hard

to get to understand the history and what we were seeing and looking at – which seems crazy when there is so much history in the place with kings, queens and other royalty having used or lived here for hundreds of years. Inyerstingly I had tweeted we were there and I got a notice on the Monday and responded that that was a miss and they thanked for the input – so at least they trying to engage and find out what visitors looking for as they work on the revamp.


The one thing that did help, was the staff. In some of the rooms we asked some of the society to tell us more and they were Very enthusiastic and happily chatted away and told us anecdotes and stories about the place and rooms, which was brilliant and needed as standard like other places do on cards or guide sheets.


It is easy to spend a few hours in the house whether you do that and find out more. Overall though think the enchanted theme is a bit too arty and obscure for most tourists looking to immerse in British Royalty and pomp. But either way, the place was well organised, beautiful and worth visiting.


The gift shop has many strange and interesting gifts and items that is worth spending instance in. We came away with china mugs, a book on the palace, jams and managed to resist most of other personalised bits and pieces!


A good afternoon out, and do the afternoon tea!


Official website:
http://www.hrp.org.uk/kensingtonpalace/
Wipipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Palace

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[Source] GARY BEMBRIDGE

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