Historic Royal Palaces remains committed to our plans to redevelop and represent Kensington Palace despite narrowly missing out on a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Whilst our bid was turned down as a result of huge cuts in the HLF’s funding pot, we believe the project, which will transform the visitor experience of the palace, can secure the funds needed to realise its ambitions.
Central to our £12 million project is creating new public gardens to reopen the vistas to and from Kensington Palace, making a new visitor entrance and new routes to explore the palace that are accessible to everyone, revealing the hidden stories of the past in lively and relevant ways, building further partnerships with the local community and realising formal and informal education opportunities.
Michael Day, Chief Executive of Historic Royal Palaces said of the news, “We are obviously very disappointed the Heritage Lottery Fund is not able to support our project for Kensington Palace, but we believe that over the past two years we have developed an excellent scheme that will transform the palace into an exciting, engaging and inspirational visitor experience for the widest possible audience. We remain fully committed to delivering this exciting vision for Kensington by 2012, and that with a combination of our own resources and the backing of supporters and partners we can achieve our ambitions.”
Whilst Kensington Palace is a popular London visitor attraction, this project will enable Historic Royal Palaces to make major improvements to ensure it remains a visitor destination that attracts an even broader, more diverse audience. Only a small proportion (250,000) of the millions of people who annually pass through Kensington’s surrounding park venture beyond the railings and foliage that enclose the palace. Inside the palace the wonderful historic rooms and collections are not shown to their best because of complicated visitor routes and dated methods of presentation. Many of Kensington’s most compelling stories remain untold. Without physical changes to the layout of the palace it will not be possible for people with disabilities to share the same experience as others. The lack of spaces for education and community uses limits Historic Royal Palaces’ ambition for sharing Kensington Palace’s rich past and historic collections with local communities and a wide range of learners.
