Kensington Palace 1: Ending Sep 2022


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I can't take any report saying the Cambridge and Gloucester apartments are 20 / 21 bedrooms big seriously.

I agree, maybe 20/21 rooms but not that many bedrooms. It's large but that is not realistic.
 
Heck my house has 10 rooms not counting 2 bathrooms...so 20/21 rooms is not ginormous especially if they are the typical smaller sized European rooms.


LaRae
 
Reports are always sketchy. Most reports of their home is said to be five bedrooms. But they never include nurseries or rooms for servants in those. I have read reports where they had 9 rooms for servants. As I understand nurseries are two rooms (play nursery, bedroom nursery). So if they are counting each nursery as 2 rooms, could account for the 20 bedroom count.

I am not taking Princess Michael as a source for whether Harry will get apartment 1 or not. She said about the Cambridges and was not true.

There are other apartments available as has been established.


There is a lot of speculation about Harry moving into KP but do folks think it's likely Harry will move to Clarence House when Charles succeeds? I don't expect the Cambridges to leave Kensington until William is king but it does seem unlikely Clarence House would be left empty or converted to offices.

Highly unlikely. Harry and Meghan are going to require more room for kids then Notts. And I don't see them waiting on kids until after Charles is king. I guess they could move twice, but if their new apartment requires the kind of renovation 1a did, I doubt it.
 
There is a lot of speculation about Harry moving into KP but do folks think it's likely Harry will move to Clarence House when Charles succeeds? I don't expect the Cambridges to leave Kensington until William is king but it does seem unlikely Clarence House would be left empty or converted to offices.

Irrespective of when Charles becomes King, he is unlikely to move to BP for at least another decade, IMO. BP has just started a decade long renovation programme, and the private apartments of the monarch are the last bits of the building that are scheduled to be renovated. If I were Charles, I might stay put at Clarence House and see the refurb completed before moving to BP.

This would mean that Clarence House is not a real option for Harry & Meghan in the foreseeable future. My sense is that an apartment will be found for them at KP.
 
Interesting that they kept so much of her clothing. I get the fancy dresses, but not the minefield outfit.


LaRae
 
Interesting that they kept so much of her clothing. I get the fancy dresses, but not the minefield outfit.


LaRae

Yeah, William and Harry have her possessions at Kensington Palace. Her Halo Trust Minefield outfit is pretty iconic.
 
Interesting that they kept so much of her clothing. I get the fancy dresses, but not the minefield outfit.


LaRae

Too much for me......i’d rather see the Queen Mother’s hats!
 
Yeah..Most of it should go to charity or to raise money. Just keep a few iconic pieces for display. No one is ever going to wear them (within the BRF).


LaRae
 
I agree Pranter. There’s something unhealthy about it IMO. It’s hard to go thru and discard a loved ones belongings (like many, I’ve been there).
 
But your loved ones clothes or things would not attract people to an exhibit. Nor are they part of history.
There are valid reasons to keep these things since they belong to a popular former member of the Royal Family and mother of a future King.
 
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But your loved ones clothes or things would not attract people to an exhibit. Nor are they part of history.
There are valud reasons to keep these things since they belong to a popular former member of the Royal Family and mother of a future King.

I just think it’s unhealthy. I understand keeping certain things but for me, the memorial is never ending in trying to keep the late mother of a future King “alive”. It’s JMO. It also makes me think—three in a marriage. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, it’s what I feel.
 
But your loved ones clothes or things would not attract people to an exhibit. Nor are they part of history.
There are valid reasons to keep these things since they belong to a popular former member of the Royal Family and mother of a future King.

I think folks do tend to forget that Diana’s clothes are historical items. Just like all the other stuff that’s in the Royal Collection. Hundreds of people flock to Kensington Palace every year to view the ceremonial and other royal wardrobes.

It’s one of the reasons why went to Althorp to view these items from July 1st-August 31st every year. History!
 
I'll be honest here and state that I wouldn't walk across the street to see clothing worn by Diana or anything associated with Diana. Its just not of interest to me one bit.

Now, to see the Queen's wardrobe with the matching umbrellas, that's a horse of a different color. :D
 
I think Diana had some great looks but of course not everything was great or worked.


LaRae
 
I truly wonder how "big" the apartments at Kensington are?
 
I'm almost positive that if you read through this thread from the very beginning, there are floor plans and whatnot about some of the private apartments. Just look in this thread for specific people and residences you know are at KP.

I know there's quite a bit of information regarding 1A (Princess Margaret's and the Cambridges' home) at:

http://www.theroyalforums.com/forum...s-kensington-palace-and-anmer-hall-29282.html

Harry and Meghan's Nottingham Cottage at KP and Frogmore Cottage at:

http://www.theroyalforums.com/forum...ore-cottage-and-nottingham-cottage-45791.html

But, as I know you're specifically interested in Diana, I'm going to do something I never imagined I'd do in my lifetime and that is recommend a book that really gives you insights into Diana's home at KP (which are now used by William and Kate and Harry and Meghan as rooms for meet and greets and events). This book also includes pictures taken by the author of the rooms during Diana's time. Its not the book's fault it was written by a worm (and I don't mean a bookworm) :D

The Way We Were: Remembering Diana by Paul Burrell
 
In 2004 I actually got to wander around 1A when I visited KP. My sister and I were in the State apartments and couldn't believe when the tour then led us into 1A. Princess Margarets apartment wasn't being used for anything at that point and so it was open to visitors. I remember we started at the top of the house and were able to look in a couple of bedrooms. On the landing you could look out the window and see directly across the courtyard to the Michaels and Diana's old apartment. We were literally looking at their front doors. There was a lift in the landing but we took the stairs down and there we were in the black and white slabbed hall behind the big wooden front doors. The door to the blue drawing room was open but there was a rope so you couldn't actually walk in and at the end if the drawing room there were double doors that opened into the dining room and they were open too so we could see a bit of the dining room too. We then walked behind the drawing room to a room where PM kept her china and you could look right out the window there into her big private garden. I couldn't believe at the time that I was getting to walk around PM's actual house, I kept thinking of all the times I'd read about it in books and all the famous people who had been in there and it was totally surreal. There were pictures if PM in each room to show the visitor her standing where they were standing, just amazing. I don't' know how long the apartment was open to the public but I consider myself so lucky that I visited KP when I did. It's still hard to take in that I have been all around William and Kate's house (well some of it) before they were. The rooms BTW were of a decent size but not huge. Only the drawing room was of any considerable size.
 
Wow. Now that is a tour to remember that the majority of us will never have a chance to take. An eyewitness account of Apartment 1A.

I wonder if that china room is used for the same purpose today for the Cambridges? I remember reading when George was small(er) that when he was told that his daddy went to China, he ran over to the china cupboard and started looking in there for him. :D

https://people.com/royals/prince-ge...net-after-hearing-prince-william-is-in-china/
 
I was trying to figure out who has lived the longest at Kensington Palace over the years,there have been so many residents!!!
 
In 2004 I actually got to wander around 1A when I visited KP. My sister and I were in the State apartments and couldn't believe when the tour then led us into 1A. Princess Margarets apartment wasn't being used for anything at that point and so it was open to visitors. I remember we started at the top of the house and were able to look in a couple of bedrooms. On the landing you could look out the window and see directly across the courtyard to the Michaels and Diana's old apartment. We were literally looking at their front doors. There was a lift in the landing but we took the stairs down and there we were in the black and white slabbed hall behind the big wooden front doors. The door to the blue drawing room was open but there was a rope so you couldn't actually walk in and at the end if the drawing room there were double doors that opened into the dining room and they were open too so we could see a bit of the dining room too. We then walked behind the drawing room to a room where PM kept her china and you could look right out the window there into her big private garden. I couldn't believe at the time that I was getting to walk around PM's actual house, I kept thinking of all the times I'd read about it in books and all the famous people who had been in there and it was totally surreal. There were pictures if PM in each room to show the visitor her standing where they were standing, just amazing. I don't' know how long the apartment was open to the public but I consider myself so lucky that I visited KP when I did. It's still hard to take in that I have been all around William and Kate's house (well some of it) before they were. The rooms BTW were of a decent size but not huge. Only the drawing room was of any considerable size.
Wow what an amazing experience. I’ve read that her apartment was filled with pink and turquoise. Is that true?
 
Wow what an amazing experience. I’ve read that her apartment was filled with pink and turquoise. Is that true?

Gosh, we are going back 15 years now but I remember clearly leaving the state apartments and wandering into a random non historical looking bedroom thinking, "where the heck are we?". It really was that non descript. I think we were in 1A a good 5 minutes before we saw a sign telling us that the room we had now found ourselves in was PM's guest bedroom. To say we were surprised/excited was an understatement. Non royal watchers mabye wouldn't have appreciated what this was but we did and it was unbelievable. Anyway. The room had a large bed with almost totally white bedsheets and curtains with just a speck of blue matching and us (the visitors) could walk around, no restrictions at all! I don't know to this day if they were changed after PM's death but that is how they were that day and the whole room looked very crisp and clean and fresh. I would be lying if I claimed to remember the colour schemes after that but the top landing was an apple green colour if my memory serves me correctly. The drawing room still was that famous blue colour at the time, walls, curtains, everything, all original from her time there. I remember staring thinking, "The Burtons were here, Nureyev was here and this is just totally unbelievable, how on Earth can I be standing here?" I've visited Windsor, Holyrood Palace and Britannia but that experience was the best ever because it was so unusual and so unlikely to ever happen again.
 
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