Kensington

A brief look at Kensington Palace and its surroundings

The path that I started on to Kensington Palace — photo by author.

It was a cold day, yesterday, and surprisingly sunny.

People were out in their droves, I didn’t expect it — it is half-term, however. I am, once again, on a week’s annual leave, due to swapping with a colleague having to go back to his country.

It could have been a summer’s day, in fact, I came here last summer, only now we were all dressed for the cold.

The sky was very blue, it was nice to see, after all the gloomy weather. It’s doom and gloom again today, topped off with rain!

I walked up the path into Kensington Gardens, seeing people having fun. There was a lot of chatter. A teacher had set up goal posts, and children were playing football.

The clouds in the sky look like cotton wool on the trees — photo by author.

Henry VIII created Hyde Park in 1536 for himself, to hunt deer, and Kensington Gardens was the western part of it. In 1689, William III and Mary II created the palace, and because William was from Holland, Mary wanted a Dutch-style garden to make him feel at home.

Queen Anne changed it to an English-style garden in 1702, and in 1728, Queen Caroline remodelled the park…