England’s Most Famous Palaces: The History of Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace

*Includes pictures
*Includes historic accounts
*Includes a bibliography for further reading
*Includes a table of contents

“I’m glad we’ve been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.” - The Queen Mother in 1940 after Buckingham Palace had been bombed by the Nazis

When people think of the British Royal family, and more specifically where they live, the first image that often pops into mind is that of stately Buckingham Palace, with its changing of the guard and the occasional royal coach leaving or entering. Others may think of the royal country estate of Windsor Castle, a favorite of both Britain’s longest-reigning and second longest-reigning monarchs. And there was a time when both royal residences played second fiddle to a much better known home, the elegant Kensington Palace.

In his multi-volume work, Old and New London (1878), Edward Walford wrote, “It has often been said by foreigners that if they were to judge of the dignity and greatness of a country by the palace which its sovereign inhabits, they would not be able to ascribe to Her Majesty Queen Victoria that proud position among the ‘crowned heads’ of Europe which undoubtedly belongs to her. But though Buckingham Palace is far from being so magnificent as Versailles is, or the Tuilleries once were, yet it has about it an air of solidity and modest grandeur, which renders it no unworthy residence for a sovereign who cares more for a comfortable home than for display.”

This is ultimately what palaces are all about: power and impressions. Buckingham Palace is not different, for though it was originally built as a home of a private citizen, once a king bought it, its future was sealed. Walford continued, “Indeed, it has often been said that, with the exception of St. James's, Buckingham Palace is the ugliest royal residence in Europe; and although vast sums of money have been spent at various times upon its improvement and embellishment, it is very far from being worthy of the purpose to which it is dedicated—lodging the sovereign of the most powerful monarchy in the world. It fronts the western end of St. James's Park, which here converges to a narrow point; the Mall, upon the north, and Birdcage Walk, upon the south, almost meeting before its gates.”

Like many royal residences, Buckingham and Kensington began their lives as large private homes, and it was only after a king, or in Kensington’s case, a king and queen, took notice of them that they were expanded into the size and grandeur that they display today. Even this work was not the product of one major overhaul but of several, spread across decades of changes in architecture, interior design, and even technology.

King William III purchased Kensington Palace in the early years of his reign, less than three short decades after the Stuarts returned to the throne, and he and his queen were the first monarchs to move the British court there. Later, his successors became more attached to the palace, and by the time King George I, the first king from the House of Hanover, came to the throne, Kensington was considered the best place for the king and his family to live.

Ultimately, this did not last for long, because in spite of all the work King George I and King George II put into the palace, King George III preferred to live elsewhere, primarily the new Buckingham House. As a result, Kensington became the home of lesser royals, such as the penniless Duchess of Kent, who raised her little daughter, Victoria, there. Later one of England’s most famous queens, this little girl grew up to use Kensington as a place to house relatives that she wanted to keep close by or felt some other moral obligation to.

In the century that followed Queen Victoria’s reign, the palace became something of a “starter home” for newlywed princes and princesses, from the star-crossed Charles and Diana to the ever-popular Will and Kate.