Historic Royal Palaces is delighted to announce it is in the closing stages of its fundraising campaign for the £12 million redevelopment of Kensington Palace. The project will enhance the visitors’ experience of the Palace and make it ‘a Palace for everyone’. The extensive refurbishment will be unveiled in March 2012 to celebrate the year of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics.
Kensington Palace will be linked once again to the neighbouring park and surrounding landscape with gardens inspired by the historic grounds of the area. Historic vistas to and from the Palace will be reinstated, and a new outdoor courtyard will be installed. The main visitor entrance will be relocated to the East of the Palace to welcome visitors. The Palace’s interiors have been restored to reflect the grandeur of their many royal residents.
Charles Mackay, Chairman of Historic Royal Palaces said “Our plans for Kensington Palace will open up the buildings and gardens and increase our visitors’ appreciation of the important events that have occurred there. We are pleased to have excellent support from major donors in the UK as well as America. Our most recent gift of £1 million has been made by American industrialist and philanthropist Mark Pigott OBE. Mr Pigott’s gift complements our most generous supporters for this project, notably Lord Cadogan, Dame Vivien Duffield and the Weston Family, in helping make our vision a reality.”
Historic Royal Palaces is, as part of this project, creating a new suite of visitor galleries in the Palace. These spaces, which have not been previously open to the public, will be the new home of a series of exhibitions, which will explore the building’s royal history. The extensive Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection will be the primary resource of the exhibitions. The first exhibition in the Pigott Galleries will open in May 2012 and will feature special items from Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897, the only other Diamond Jubilee in British Royal History.
Source: hrp.org.uk