Kensington Palace

One of the first things I did here in London (as a tourist at least) was to go visit Kensington Palace. This is the palace that Princess Diana called home, and it’s located in another one of the royal parks. I went on a beautiful fall day and the park was full of people strolling with dogs and with kids playing on the Princess Diana Memorial Playground (looked pretty cool, with a giant Pirate Ship and all). The palace was just okay; it wasn’t all that elaborate and was much simpler than others I have seen. I think I am over European palaces. There were two special exhibits that were interesting, though.

One was a two-room display of some of Princess Diana’s dresses. It was fun to see them up close, and based on the size of the dresses, I think Princess Diana was a bigger size than I would have expected (probably only a size 8 at the most, but I was thinking she’d be a tiny size 2 like American celebrities). Some of the dresses were so 80s and it really put into perspective the timeframe in which she was alive and during which she attended all these events.

The other was an exhibit called “The Last of the Debutantes”. London had a formal debutante system until it was terminated in 1958 by the orders of the Queen. Before that, girls were prepared and presented to the Queen in a formal affair once per year. Leading up to the presentation, there were endless afternoon teas and dinners/dances that the girls attended. The exhibit showed the dresses they wore to the dances, articles in the gossip columns about the “debs”, a wall filled with invitations from one debutante “season” (there were probably 100+!) and had videos with interviews from the women who were presented during the 1958 season. It was interesting and fun to see what life in high-society London was like during that time.

Picture: The park where Kensington Palace is located.