Furrylittlegnome Spends the Afternoon at Kensington Palace

We all know who resides here now – Prince William and his wife, Catherine Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. Most of us also know that the prince’s mother, Princess Diana, called the palace her home from 1981 until her death in 1997.

Did you know that Queen Victoria was born here? Yes, it’s true furrylittlegnome followers, on May 24, 1819, to be exact.

Kensington Palace recently went through a multi-million pound renovation, and gnome is here to report on it. First of all, you do not need to pay an admission fee to roam the grounds inside the iron gates or visit the improved gift shop and the new cafe.

Even though the weather has been gloomy, the Sunken gardens looked amazing.

Sorry, for the camera crew in the photo, folks, but we ran into Matt Lauer reporting for “The Today Show” on the palace grounds.

After paying the £15.95 admission fee, furrylittlegnome stayed on the ground floor and headed straight to the Princess Diana exhibit that began with a hallway covered in wallpaper of colorful sketches, by artist Julie Verhoeven, that depicted the late princess in various stages of her royal life.

We then entered a small and dark room where there were five dresses on display, including this bright Catherine Walker design, that Diana wore in February of 1988 on a royal tour in Thailand.

With a few photos and some writing on a wall, the Diana portion was over and it was time to go upstairs to see the Victoria Revealed exhibit – a peek into the life of a woman who became queen at the age of eighteen.

Her simple white wedding gown is below. In 1840, the barely five feet tall Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert. The queen and her consort had nine children and were madly in love.

The Queen Victoria exhibit focused heavily on family – from her lonely childhood to the family she made with her husband. There are wooden toys, dolls and everything else you would expect and more!

Prince Albert passed away of typhoid fever in 1861. Queen Victoria was devastated and spent her remaining years in mourning – always wearing black until her passing in January of 1901. To this day, Queen Victoria is the longest serving British monarch in history.

Here is a look out the front windows on the second floor (third floor in America) at Kensington Palace. You can see the statue of King William III in the center.

To warm up, furrylittlegnome and her group of gnomes made their way over to Wrights Lane (off of Kensington High Street) to grab a gingerbread man cookie and hot tea from The Muffin Man.

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