Independent charity Historic Royal Palaces is undertaking a £12 million major project to transform Kensington Palace by 2012. The Palace could have closed for this time, or they could have chosen to do something extraordinary. They chose to do something extraordinary.

Last year I went to The Palace with William Tempest, to a meeting with curators Joanna Marschner and Alexandra Kim and the team from theatre company Wild Works. This was the first of many meetings to come and Joanna spoke about an extraordinary idea, it was a meeting of possibilities – which is in many ways what the Palace is all about.

I couldn’t envision how it was all going to come together. I saw the start of several of the princesses’ rooms and unusual objects being created in the work rooms of Kensington Palace. Vivienne Westwood, William Tempest, Stephen Jones, Aminaka Wilmont, Boudicca and illustrator and set designer Echo Morgan all choose a room and a story, and with Wild Works they created “The Enchanted Palace”.

The Enchanted Palace opened on March 26th and I had the opportunity to visit the Palace at night. It truly was enchanting – it felt alive and atmospheric. You often feel the need to whisper like you’re in a museum but the Palace is not a museum – it’s a place where people actually live. It was home to William and Mary, George II, the young Queen Victoria, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Duke and Duchess of Kent and Duke and Duchess of Gloucester presently live in the west wing of the Palace.

Some will say this is not an exhibition for traditionalists, but I think it is. The Palace and it’s stories are celebrated and told again in new ways so that they are not forgotten, and the stories told through this exhibition are definitely stories to be remembered.

 William Tempest – Queen Victoria’s bedroom

Vivienne Westwood – Charlotte The Rebellious Princess

Boudicca -The Cupola Room

Wild Works Theatre company – Detectors keeping watch over The Palace. They are what makes the Palace come to life they are scurrying about with a ghost like quality playing musical instruments including a saw, watching over a missing princess and discussing time.

Aminaka Wilmont’s ‘dress of tears’  hangs above the bed in Queen Mary II

Council Chamber has two dresses, which belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales and Princess Margaret. The dresses are enclosed in glass cases surrounded by leafless trees.

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I’ve spent most of the week working at Kensington Palace for The Enchanted Palace with William Tempest. The Palace Gardens are beautiful but a bit barren, today the crocuses have started to grow!

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Kensington Palace is one of London’s most famous landmarks, not least because it was once to home to Princess Diana. Every room has a story – it truly is a place of fairytales and secrets. There are so many hidden doors, secret stairwells and tiny rooms.

This year the palace has been transfored by the UK theatre company Wildworks and some of UK’s most talented designers:Vivienne Westwood, William Tempest, Stephen Jones, Aminaka Wilmont, Boudicca and illustrator and set designer Echo Morgan.

Naturally the room that I’m most exciting about is Queen Victoria’s bedroom with an installation by William Tempest! This is the room in which Victoria was sleeping when her uncle King William IV died at Windsor Castle in the middle of the night, and where she awoke to the news that she was to become Queen. The installation in this room will represent Victoria’s life changing overnight transformation from young princess to Queen of the United Kingdom. Inspired by Victoria’s new-found freedom and independence as a result of her accession, William Tempest will create an avant-garde interpretation of a period dress that uses origami and produce a trompe l’oeil effect whereby the dress will appear to vanish and merge into its surroundings.

The Enchanted Palace opens 26 March – June 2010 at Kensington Palace.
Information on opening hours and ticket prices, visit www.hrp.org.uk/kensingtonpalace. Supported by the Members of Historic Royal Palaces.

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