London Dog Walking Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace

The origin of Kensington Palace was Nottingham House, a Jacobian house built in 1605 bought by King William III to escape his offical residence in Whitehall.

He liked the idea of living in the quiet village hamlet of Kensington and bought the house for a snip at £20,000. If it was to come on the market today, its value would be in the hundreds of millions,

Queen Anne did no major work to the Palace, but did add the orangery, primarily for wintering the exotic plants, but used extensively as a supper room. Queen Anne spent a lot of time at the house and, though she was pregnant 17 times, she only gave birth to one, her son William who died of smallpox age 11. Prince George and Queen Anne both died at Kensington Palace.

From then it has been rebuilt and altered through its history. Sir Christopher Wren was the first to start working on the building, on a tight budget!

George 1 rebuilt the house that was not in great condition and this took a lot of his reign so he rarely used it. However King Geoge II used it as one of his principal residences for 4-6 months a year.

When he died in the Palace, this ended its use as a seat of the reigning monach.

Whilst King George III did not live at Kensington Palace, his son Edward Duke of Kent lived there. It was here that his wife gave birth to Victoria who would become the future Queen. Victoria was christend in the famous Cupola room that was decorated by William Kent. However, the Duke only lived on for another nine months. Victoria and her mother, the Duchess of Kent, continued to live there and made some changes to the building layout that did not go well with King William IV who was not consulted. In 1837, it was at Kensington Palace that Victoria was awakened to be told of her accession to the throne. So she then moved to Buckingham Palace.

During Victoria's reign the Palace was neglected, used mainly for storage and it deteriorated until, at the end of the 19th century, it was derelict and at risk.

Queen Victoria wanted her birth place preserved as a museum or gallery. So government restored it rapdily with as little change as possible on the understanding that it would be open to the public. It was opened on Queen Victoria's 80th birthday.

In the 20th century, the building was used as part of the London museum. It was badly bomb-damaged in the Second World War. So after the war, it was closed for 5 years.

In the more recent past it has been used as a residence for members of the royal family. The most famous of which was Princess Diana who lived in the north west of the Palace from 1981 to 1997.

Kensington Garden

Kensington Gardens cover 245 acres (111 hectares) and is full of avenues of great trees and ornamental flower beds. You will not however see any yew trees as Queen Anne hated them and had them all uprooted. It was originally part of Hyde Park. Queen Caroline, wife of King George II, moulded the gardens by creating the Serpentine and the long water from Westbourne stream. So, for much of the 18th century, it was private and closed to the general public. As it opened up in the 19th century, it was only opened to those who were respectedly dressed!


Be careful with your dog in the gardens. In certain garden areas dogs are banned. In others, you may want to keep them on the lead as there is a lot of wildlife around including squirrels and other dogs. Be particularly careful with your dog around the Round Pond as there are ducks for them to chase and the swans may attack the dog if they get too close to their young.

Bird records have been kept in Kensington Gardens for over a 100 years and 178 species have been identified including the nesting of Green Woodpeckers.

Kensington Gardens Park is open from 06h00 until dusk.

Queen Victoria continued the develpoment of the gardens commissioning the Italian garden and the Albert memorial.

There is also the famous Peter Pan statue.

The Elfin Oak is a gnarled, partially hollow stump originally from Richmond Park. It is carved with the figures of fairies, elves and various small animals following the contours of the wood.

There is the Princess Diana Memorial Playground.

A great walk is the Princess Diana seven mile Memorial Walk that goes for seven miles from here through Hyde Park, Green Park and St Jame's Park. You can see these in the pavement as you go.










Well worth a visit and as it is free is the Serpentine Gallery. 750,000 people visit the contemporary art exhibits every year.