The Orangery
A supremely elegant setting, the Orangery is the perfect place on a sunny afternoon to sit and watch London go by. Built in 1705 by Nicholas Hawksmoor - more famous for his churches - for Queen Anne, it was later modified by Vanbrugh. If you really want to feel like a princess, enjoy some pink champagne.
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Deer & Faun
Topping the gates to Kensington Gardens are these matched pair of deer with their fauns. Once part of Hyde Park, Henry VIII's huge deer chase, the gardens we see today originated in 1689, when King William and his wife Mary bought Nottingham House and renamed it Kensington Palace.
Queen Victoria
While Queen Victoria is well known from images of her in later life, this one shows her as a younger woman on her accession in 1837. It’s by her daughter, Princess Louise, to mark 50 years of rule. The young queen lived in Kensington Palace as a child and used to ride her donkey in the grounds.
Once part of Hyde Park, Henry VIII’s huge deer chase, the gardens we see today originated in 1689, when King William and his wife Mary bought Nottingham House in the quiet rural village of Kensington and renamed it Kensington Palace.
Tube: High Street Kensington
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Albert Memorial
Unveiled in 1872, this gothic tribute to Queen’s Victoria’s beloved Prince Alfred shows him holding the catalogue to the Great Exhibition he did so much to bring about. The four corners represent the British Empire and the arts and sciences while the frieze shows 169 eminent Victorian scientists and artists.
Great Exhibition Gates
These gates are the last remnants of the Great Exhibition of 1851 - held in the glass wonder that eventually gave its name to Crystal Palace. It made a £186,000 profit which financed the Victoria and Albert, Science and Natural History museums in South Kensington.
St Govor’s Well
Some lovely calligraphy decorates the 1976 mounting for this ancient spring. It was named after Saint Govor, the patron saint of Llanover in Wales - famous for its springs - by Benjamin Hall, later Lord Llanover. Hall was London’s first Commissioner for Works - and the man after whom ‘Big Ben’ is named.
Physical Energy
George Frederick Watts, RA, was one of the foremost painters of his time but did little sculptural work because of an allergy to plaster. This massive bronze, another casting of which forms the Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town, was put here in 1908. He was responsible for Postman’s Park.
Esme Percy Fountain
Near the Palace Gate entrance, on Broad Walk, this 1961 bronze terrier by sculptor Silvia Gilley waits with endless patience for someone to play with him. It’s a memorial to actor Esme Percy, once famous as a producer and star of stage and 50 films, but forgotten since his death in 1957.
