Kensington Palace

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Despite the fact that we had walked past Kensington Palace quite a few times, neither of us had visited there. My sister-in-law, who works for the Royal Historic Palaces, kindly offered the tickets for us – and we decided to visit there on 27 May.



Since the reign of the William III and Mary II in 1689, Kensington Palace has been used as the royal residence and the parts of the palace still remain a private residence for members of the Royal Family – and we felt that it is a very royal-orientated palace. Many rooms had portraits of the British monarchs and their families & relatives, courtiers, large paintings and tapestries of historical events, frescos and carvings with mythological themes, and collections of blue-and-white porcelain.



There were special exhibitions relating to George II in the King’s Apartments. There were two or three people who were dresses as Georgian kings, playing musical instruments and card games with visitors and giving them lectures.



The highlight of the royal-orientated palace is the royal ceremonial dress collections, which date from 18^th century to the present and have been designed and tailored for individuals, in line with the trend of the fashion at the time. We saw a wide variety of dresses, which were worn by members of the Royal Family, including the recent ones like Princess Diana or Princess Kate and dresses worn by officials and dignitaries undertaking ceremonial roles. Many of them had very intricate frills, pretty embroidery, and some of them were decorated with jewels. There were also displays of accessories such as veils, hats and shoes, all of which had very intricate decorations.



It was raining in the afternoon of 27^th May; however, we strolled through the lovely garden around the palace and Kensington Gardens. We found a lovely Italian Garden on the edge of the Long Water connected from the Serpentine.

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