The Sunken Garden, where our evening will begin. Flickr picture from 2015 by Amanda Slater (CC BY-SA 2.0)

We’ll have a private guided tour of the exhibition “Diana: Her Fashion Story”. Picture © Historic Royal Palaces

The magnificent King’s Staircase, leading up to the King’s State Apartments, with wall paintings from 1724 by William Kent, depicting George I’s court . Flickr photo from 2009 by Jim Deane (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The evening will begin with drinks and canapés at the terrace of the brand new Kensington Palace Pavilion, which overlooks the Sunken Garden.

An evening at Kensington Palace

Tuesday 10 July 2018, 6:30pm – 9:00pm

Where to meet up: See ticket, which will be sent to those attending

Join us for an exclusive evening visit to Kensington Palace, hosted by Sam Owen of Historic Royal Palaces, and Claudia Williams, curator at Kensington Palace.

It will start with drinks and canapés on the terrace of the brand new Kensington Palace Pavilion, overlooking the Sunken Garden. Kensington Palace Pavilion is the recently opened temporary events building which replaces the Orangery while it is undergoing major conservation and building works until 2021. After the drinks there will be a private guided tour of the King’s State Apartments and the Queen’s State Apartments as well as the two exhibitions Diana: Her Fashion Story  and Victoria Revealed.

The King’s State Apartments were largely designed for George I, and they were designed to impress: from the grand staircase through the presence chamber to the privy chamber.

The Queen’s State Apartments, designed for William and Mary by Christopher Wren when they made the palace the monarch’s residence in 1689, are more private.

Diana: Her Fashion Story is the very successful exhibition of Princess Diana’s most iconic dresses, which first opened in February 2017. For 2018, the exhibition has been expanded to include the flak vest, denim shirt and Armani chinos she wore when visiting the landmine fields of Angola in 1997, the pink Bellville Sassoon suit she wore when she and Prince Charles left for their honeymoon, and some never-before displayed outfits, such as a sumptuous Victor Edelstein evening gown that she wore for an official portrait by Terence Donovan.

Victoria Revealed is the permanent exhibition which since 2004 has been held in the rooms where Victoria lived until she became queen in 1837. The exhibition consists of over 300 objects. Some are very personal, such as the dolls she made as a little girl and a stunning pink embroidered Ottoman jacket which shows her crucial role as a diplomat, while others are paintings, photography and sculptures by Victoria’s favourite artists. New items for the 2018 version of the exhibition is a stunning diamond and emerald parure (jewel set), consisting of tiara, necklace, earrings and brooch, which her beloved Albert designed for her, plus two more magnificent tiaras which belonged to her granddaughter Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife.

The group will be limited to 60 people, so sign up early. Each participant will be sent a personal ticket, which will contain information about where we meet up before being escorted into the then closed palace.

Kensington Society members £35, non-members £45

Please use our online booking system to register and pay for this event.

Those not wishing to book and pay online can download the postal booking form, found below the online booking.

Online bookings

Make your booking online, paying via PayPal with your credit or debit card. You do not need a PayPal account to do so.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to a glitch in our payment system, when you reach the page for payment options (after having entered the names and email addresses of those attending on the previous page),  you MUST press the PayPal button under “Method of Payment”, although PayPal is the only available option, BEFORE you press the “Proceed to Finalize Registration” button. If you don’t, you’ll get an error message. However, if that happens you should be able to proceed anyway by closing the error message (just click on the X in the upper right-hand corner of the message window) and then selecting the PayPal button before you once again press the “Proceed to Finalize Registration” button.

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Postal bookings

Download and complete the booking form below and send your payment to the Kensington Society by cheque or bank transfer.

Booking form

Page updated 19/06/2018