3-085-698 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Views of Kensington Palace, the State Rooms of which are, by the Queen's command, to be restored and thrown open to the public: entrance gateway; the room in which the Queen was born, 1898. 'With the graceful thought for her people which characterises all her royal bounty, the Queen has this New Year presented to her loyal subjects, the public, two gifts which will be highly valued not only by the present generation of Londoners and sightseers generally, but by their children and their children's children. The State Rooms of Kensington Palace, which have been closed for many a long year, are...to be restored and thrown open to the public, together with the banqueting-room built by Sir Christopher Wren...Kensington's homely red-brick Palace is endeared to countless numbers of the Queen's subjects, primarily as her Majesty's birthplace. For the Queen herself it must have many happy memories of a childhood far removed from the pomps and cares of Queenship. Kensington Palace became a royal residence in 1690, when William III. bought it from Lord Nottingham. William spent £30,000 on the purchase of the place, but he set Wren to add a storey to it, so that while the house seemed somewhat patched, Evelyn considered it a "very sweete villa."' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.