Kate Middleton and Prince William's new home: Tour of Kensington Palace after £12m makeover | Mail Online
Kensington Palace Refurbishment
"Not since the Windsor fire of 1992, has there been a royal makeover on this scale. Indeed, the last time a palace went through a facelift of this magnitude, it was courtesy of a German bomb. In the case of Kensington Palace, however, this £12million transformation has not been prompted by any misfortune but by years of careful planning. Admittedly, there has been one unexpected, 11th-hour alteration to the designs. But no one is complaining about the decision of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to set up home here — because their presence in the private wing of the palace is only going to draw even more visitors through the doors on the public side.
First opened to tourists in Victorian times, Kensington Palace has long been a collection of flats for royal relatives — the Duke of Windsor used to call it ‘the Aunt Heap’ — alongside public state apartments. Now it has not merely been given a new lick of paint. Whole sections have been unveiled for the first time. More spectacularly, the grounds have been opened out and, from this morning, the public can wander into a royal palace without a ticket, to buy a cup of tea or a postcard. Once inside, they will be steered towards one of the grandest ticket offices in the land, a covered courtyard decked out like a multi-storey four-poster bed. And from there, they have the run of four exhibitions spanning four centuries, even if some of it may leave traditionalists harrumphing. After all, this is surely the first royal residence in history with talking Whoopee cushions — when sat upon, they burble historic court gossip into unsuspecting vistors’ ears.
The palace now has a completely uncluttered view of Kensington Gardens, its Round Pond and Hyde Park beyond. Looking the other way, the public now has a completely uncluttered view of the grounds landscaped by Charles Bridgeman in the early 18th century and the palace itself. Sitting there in pride of place, spruced up and good as new, is the statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by her daughter, Princess Louise. From today, when the whole thing re-opens, the public can simply walk straight up to the new front door, a covered portico known as the Diamond Jubilee Loggia, or approach via a hornbeam-lined zig-zag called the Wiggly Way.
It has always been a challenge for royal curators to set the right tone when remembering Diana, Princess of Wales. Market research shows that around a quarter of visitors to Kensington Palace are drawn by its associations with her. Too much Diana and the staff are accused of exploitation, too little and they are charged with neglect. The result is an exhibition of some of the late Princess’s dresses in what used to be Princess Margaret’s garden room. The original idea had been to maintain a permanent tribute to Diana in here but that plan has had to change because her elder son will now be converting Princess Margaret’s old home back in to a royal residence. At present, it is still office and event space. Soon, it will be home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. And it would be rather strange to expect Prince William to share the marital home with a public exhibition devoted to his late mother.
But the Historic Royal Palaces team believe Kensington Palace has to appeal to all ages and tastes if it is to boost its annual visitor numbers from the usual 300,000 to upwards of 400,000. ‘Some parts will appeal to more traditional visitors but we also need to target a younger audience,’ explains the senior curator and historian, Lucy Worsley. Unlike HRP’s larger attractions, notably the Tower of London and Hampton Court, this royal palace cannot rely on a solid turnover of coach-party traffic. And it receives no Government subsidy. The £12 million refurbishment has been paid for with cash reserves, Lottery funding and support from charitable trusts like the Clore Duffield, Gosling and Rothermere foundations."
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