London's Kensington Palace Now Open After £12 Million Renovation • We Blog The World

With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee taking place soon, there’s a lot of interest in all things royal, especially in London (see Diamond Jubilee Exhibitions in London) so it’s very timely that Kensington Palace has now finished its £12 million renovation and is back open to the public.

The Palace has a new entrance, leading directly off the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens, by the Queen Victoria statue, and there’s now a cafe for visitors to the palace and the gardens, as well as The Orangery for afternoon tea, making the building much more inviting.

There are now four routes to explore the palace: a major new permanent display about the life of Queen Victoria, the King’s and Queen’s Apartments and a temporary exhibition space in Apartment 1a, which was Princess Margaret’s home.

Victoria Revealed

We often think of Queen Victoria as an old lady who looked miserable and wore black all the time but this exhibition reminds us what a colourful and vibrant young woman she really was and how utterly in love she was with Albert, and he with her. This exhibition takes up most of the first floor of the public side of the building and is housed in the rooms where she would have lived from her birth in 1819 until becoming queen in 1837, when she moved to Buckingham Palace.

Queen’s Apartments

These rooms, while stunning in their own right, are quite dark to visit and have a theatre company’s interpretation of significant events in the rooms’ history. The Queen’s Gallery was used by Queen Mary II for her large collection of caged songbirds hence the paper birds art installation and the twittering audio. You need to interact with the costumed guides to find out what exactly is going on so this style may not suit all visitors.

King’s Apartments

The costumed guides linger in the grander and more imposing King’s Apartments but the rooms are larger and lighter and make you feel as if you’re in a royal building. The King’s Staircase with its life-size William Kent paintings are a joy (do look for Peter the Wild Boy) and seeing the King’s Gallery and all the paintings uncovered is an absolute delight. While there are some contemporary additions to the palace’s displays all of the paintings are original.

Diana

This is the first temporary exhibition and, quite rightly, features the ‘People’s Princess’. The display of Diana, Princess of Wales’s dresses is here until 1 September 2012.

The above was reposted from Visit Britain – original post to be found here with rest of entry.

Renee Blodgett

Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.

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