Kensington Gardens *

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.

The royal park spans two boroughs but is largely in Westminster, the westernmost strip west of the Broad Walk is in Kensington and Chelsea. The origins of the royal park date from the late C17th, when land was incorporated from Hyde Park (q.v.), with varied development taking place in the C18th and later. On the site of the present Kensington Palace, Nottingham House was rebuilt in 1661 for Heneage Finch, later Earl of Nottingham, whose house was purchased in 1689 by William III. It was subsequently much enlarged and remodelled as Kensington Palace, by Christopher Wren 1690 - c.1695 and by Thomas Ripley 1723-26, and it has interiors by Wren and by William Kent of 1723-27. The Orangery was built in 1704-05, probably designed by Wren but executed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, possibly with revision by Sir John Vanbrugh. Following the late C17th formal gardens beside the Palace, the layout of the gardens and park around Kensington Palace was redeveloped by Stephen Switzer and Charles Bridgeman in the early C18th, followed by William Kent. Numerous early C18th views record the formal gardens, which were extended in the 730s when Kent created the Long Water and the Serpentine, now lying between Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. From the early to mid-C18th remain the Broad Walk, extending north-south between Black Lion Gate on Bayswater Road and Palace Gate on Kensington Road, and the Round Pond, roughly octagonal, aligned to east of the Palace. In the later C18th and early C19th the earlier formal layout was progressively softened, leaving largely open areas of grass, which were crossed by paths between entrances and features within the park, and having numerous mature trees.

The principal garden features of the mid- and later C19th include the Italian Garden and area of fountains and sculpture at the north end of the Long Water, c.1860, and the Albert Memorial, 1863-72, on the south boundary of the park. An avenue northwards, aligned on the Albert Memorial, leads to the Statue of Physical Energy, which was erected in 1907, a work by G F Watts. On the west shore of the Long Water is the statue of Peter Pan, 1912, by Sir George Frampton. On the east shore of the Long Water is a large travertine marble version of Henry Moore's 'The Arch' (1963/69), which the artist donated to Kensington Gardens in 1980, two years after his 80th birthday exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. In 2024 a fibreglass version of this sculpture was installed behind Walthamstow Town Hall, as part of the new Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Garden (q.v.), dedicated to the late Queen's memory.

In the immediate area of Kensington Palace, the sunken garden was developed in 1908-09, which comprises a central paved rectangular pool with rising areas of massed bedding on each side, enclosed by trellised walkways. The park has numerous mature trees, including plane, chestnut, lime, sycamore, beech, holm oak and ash but considerable loss or damage occurred in the storms in October 1987. Located near to Kensington Palace, the Diana Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground opened on 30 June 2000, in memory of the late Princess. Inspired by the story of Peter Pan, the playground has a large wooden pirate ship as the centrepiece.

Kensington Palace Gardens have been re-landscaped with the principal aim of reconnecting the palace to the neighbouring park. The project was carried out by Historic Royal Palaces and the landscape and building improvements were completed by summer 2012 to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee of HM The Queen, much as the last round of significant improvements to the royal estate in 1897 marked the Diamond Jubilee and 80th birthday celebrations of Queen Victoria, who was born at Kensington Palace in 1819.