Diana at Home

[georgiea]

Just read in the Royalist that Diana, Princess of Wales' home is now holding a play for 100 people to attend.

[sirhon11234]

Heres the article
The Royalist - Kensington Palace: Theatre of Dreams (and Nightmares?)

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by georgiea

Just read in the Royalist that Diana, Princess of Wales' home is now holding a play for 100 people to attend.

Depends on what you understand to be Diana's home. The play will be shown at the State Apartments of Kensington Palace - these are open to the public for visiting and are rented out of functions, dinners, charity or corporate events anyway. So it's in the public part of Kensington Place and I doubt Diana ever went there. Maybe once to see them but that was that, surely. Who wants to visit the museum next door more than once if it just consists of state Apartments?

[sirhon11234]

Originally Posted by Jo of Palatine

Depends on what you understand to be Diana's home. The play will be shown at the State Apartments of Kensington Palace - these are open to the public for visiting and are rented out of functions, dinners, charity or corporate events anyway. So it's in the public part of Kensington Place and I doubt Diana ever went there. Maybe once to see them but that was that, surely. Who wants to visit the museum next door more than once if it just consists of state Apartments?

I wonder what it must be like to live in a palace especially in Kensington Palace.

Its good that a play will be shown at the palace.

[PadThaiPrincess]

I wonder what one had to do to get such an exclusive ticket? I love the idea of seeing the"behind the scenes" State Apartments where so much history has taken place. I read that during the divorce, Prince Philip wanted to stash Diana in one of the smaller apartments but she turned it down on the basis it wasn't fit for the Princes to be raised in such dwellings.

[sirhon11234]

I wonder why Philip would want to do that?

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by PadThaiPrincess

I wonder what one had to do to get such an exclusive ticket? I love the idea of seeing the"behind the scenes" State Apartments where so much history has taken place.

If you take a look here, you can see that they are open to the public:

Historic Royal Palaces > Home > Kensington Palace

Her's what I found about Diana's apartments:

Today, Kensington continues its long history as a residence for members of the Royal Family. Princesses still live around Princesses’ Court.
The best known resident in recent years was Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-97) who occupied apartments in the north-west part of the palace from 1981 to 1997.
Although her private apartments are not open to the public, the palace displays a selection of her dresses in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection.
End of quote.

I just found in the leaflet that they opened up Princess Margret's old apartment Nr. 1A Kensington Palace to the public, though only on guided tours. Seems they kept the rooms pretty much in the same style as when the princess lived there. Well, at least her kitchen...

I just fount this discussion at another board where they have floor plans and some pics which help identify Diana's apartments at Kensington Palace at Google Earth: Royal Apartment

Seems the apartments were really facing the North with only some windows into a courtyard to the South - no wonder Charles was so happy to have Highgrove.

[pinkie40]

Why wasn't St James Palace offered to Charles and Diana as their London residence instead of Kensington Palace?

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by pinkie40

Why wasn't St James Palace offered to Charles and Diana as their London residence instead of Kensington Palace?

IIRC there was a choice of apartments at kensington and St. James' but they chose the apartments at Kensington because they were closer to the Kensington Palace Gardens and Hyde Park. There is no garden fit for raising small kids close to St. James' - Kensington has a much more rural setting.

[pinkie40]

Thank you, I have often wondered that maybe a more grander setting would have appealed to Diana a bit more..since she came from a grand home herself.

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by pinkie40

Why wasn't St James Palace offered to Charles and Diana as their London residence instead of Kensington Palace?

Wasn't it because the Queen Mum was resident there already ?

[pinkie40]

Originally Posted by TheTruth

Wasn't it because the Queen Mum was resident there already ?

The Queen Mum lived at Clarence House and I am guessing St. James Palace was more of an office space rather than a residence like it was after the separation/divorce...

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by pinkie40

The Queen Mum lived at Clarence House and I am guessing St. James Palace was more of an office space rather than a residence like it was after the separation/divorce...

Yes, you're right. It seems that St James was like a working place and still is even if The PoW and his sons lived there. Clarence House isn't that far from it, is it ?

[pinkie40]

I think they are (as we say here in Texas) within hollerin' distance from each other.

[normalil]

Very interesting article about the play. I don't think that Diana would have cared where in London she lived, as long as it was central. She had no time for Balmoral or Highgrove apparently.
Sorry I've not posted more on the site since I joined, I have spent hours and hours perusing the Royal Jewel thread! Amazing.

[sirhon11234]

Kensington Palace is a beautiful residence I don't see why Charles and Diana wouldn't want to live there. :)

[PadThaiPrincess]

Originally Posted by Jo of Palatine

If you take a look here, you can see that they are open to the public:

Historic Royal Palaces > Home > Kensington Palace

Her's what I found about Diana's apartments:

Today, Kensington continues its long history as a residence for members of the Royal Family. Princesses still live around Princesses’ Court.
The best known resident in recent years was Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-97) who occupied apartments in the north-west part of the palace from 1981 to 1997.
Although her private apartments are not open to the public, the palace displays a selection of her dresses in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection.
End of quote.

I just found in the leaflet that they opened up Princess Margret's old apartment Nr. 1A Kensington Palace to the public, though only on guided tours. Seems they kept the rooms pretty much in the same style as when the princess lived there. Well, at least her kitchen...

I just fount this discussion at another board where they have floor plans and some pics which help identify Diana's apartments at Kensington Palace at Google Earth: Royal Apartment

Seems the apartments were really facing the North with only some windows into a courtyard to the South - no wonder Charles was so happy to have Highgrove.

Thanks for the link!

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by pinkie40

Thank you, I have often wondered that maybe a more grander setting would have appealed to Diana a bit more..since she came from a grand home herself.

In the Morton-book Diana is quoted as stating that she prefered the smaller, more cozy Park House at Sandringham to Althorp, especially because Althorp was so "grand" and not a real home.

Plus one should not forget that all the "grand homes" were not really meant to work as private residence but contained rooms for all kind of occasions. That's why it's relatively easy to convert them to hotels nowadays: they have official and private reception rooms, business rooms and several apartments used by the family and guests. Most of the time the main appartment included one or two bedrooms for the master of the house and his lady, plus rooms for wardrobe, later one or two bathrooms, and one or two private sitting rooms. Then there was a morning room facing to the East (morning sun), a drawing room for the reception of friends and close acquaintances etc.

But as life and lifestyle has changed, a lot of the more formal rooms are not longer in use in the great houses and can often be visited, while the family lives more in private upstairs and uses a backentrances to their carpark instead of the main entrances.

As for Kensington Palace: it's a similar layout and I believe Charles and Diana could have used the State apartments for entertaining if they wanted to. But it seems both weren't that much into entertaining, as claimed by former staff.