Kensington Palace and Gardens

King William III

In 1714 Queen Anne died in Kensington Palace from a fit brought on by over-eating. Her body was so swollen that it had to be buried in Westminster Abbey in a vast almost-square coffin.

Queen Anne

During September 1997, Kensington Palace was the focus of public mourning when thousands of people came to the home of Diana, the Princess of Wales, to lay flowers at the gates in her memory. Her death in a car-crash in Paris traumatised the nation and pictures of the palace golden gates with a carpet of flowers were beamed around the world.

A path from the gates of Kensington Palace leads to Kensington Palace Gardens, a tree lined avenue containing some of the grandest and most expensive houses in the world. It has long been known as "Billionaires Row", due to the wealth of its private residents, although the majority of its current occupants are embassies and ambassadorial residences. The street is still lit by very dim Victorian-style streetlights.

Russian Embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens

Kensington Gardens were once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, but are now one of London’s Royal Parks. The park has been laid out with fashionable features including the Round Pond, formal avenues and a sunken Dutch garden. The gardens are full of charm starting with a statue of the fictional Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up playing his pipes to the fairies and other magical inhabitants of the park.  The Albert memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband and opened in 1882. Finally an obelisk dedicated to John Speke, an officer in the British Indian army, who made three voyages of exploration to Africa.

The Albert Memorial

King William III and his wife Queen Mary both lived in Kensington Palace until their deaths. Mary died in 1694 of smallpox. William suffered a broken collarbone resulting from a fall from his horse. While resting beside an open window in Kensington Palace, he caught pneumonia and died in 1702.