ENSINGTON PALACE, built by William and Mary, occupied by Queen Anne as one of her favourite residences, enlarged by George I. and greatly appreciated by George II. and his queen, Caroline, has received a greater renown and more interesting associations from having been the birthplace and early home of Queen Victoria. In celebration of the eightieth anniversary of that ever-memorable and auspicious event, Her Majesty decided on opening the State Apartments free to the public on the 24th of May, 1899, during Her Majesty’s pleasure.
Before recapitulating the events of the Queen’s early life here, we must give a brief outline of the history of the Palace since it became a royal residence.
The original building, of which it is probable that a good deal still stands, was erected mainly by Sir Heneage Finch, Lord Chancellor and Earl of Nottingham, who acquired the estate, including some hundred and fifty acres of meadow and park—now Kensington Gardens—from his brother Sir John Finch. Hence it was known as Nottingham House; and under that title it was bought from Daniel Finch, the second earl, for the sum of 18,000 guineas, in the summer or autumn of 1689, by King William III., who was anxious to have a convenient residence near enough to Whitehall for the transaction of business, and yet sufficiently far to be out of the smoky atmosphere, in which he found it impossible to breathe. The King, assisted by his Queen, at once set about enlarging and embellishing the mansion, and laying out new gardens.
HE works seem to have been begun on or very soon after the 1st of October, 1689. We learn this from the enrolled account of “Thomas Lloyd, Paymaster of Their Majesties Workes and Buildinges,” made up from “paybookes subscribed with the handes of Sir Christopher Wren, Knight Surveyor of the workes; William Talman, Comptroller; John Oliver, Master Mason; and Matthew Bankes, Master Carpenter, and with the hand of Nicolas Hawkesmore, clerke of the said workes, according to the ancient usual and due course of the office of their Majesties workes.”
In the second week of November a news-letter informs us that the new apartment, then being built, “suddenly fell flat to the ground, killing seven or eight workmen and labourers. The Queen had been in that apartment but a little while before.”
By February 25th, 1690, they were sufficiently advanced for Evelyn to record in his diary: “I went to Kensington, which King William has bought of Lord Nottingham, and altered, but was yet a patched building, but with the garden, it is a very sweete villa, having to it the Park, and a straight new way through this Park.” The making of this new road cost just about £8,000.
Building operations were continued during the King’s absence in Ireland; and the day before the news of the battle of the Boyne reached Queen Mary she spent a few quiet hours in the gardens here, writing the same evening, July 5th, to William: “The place made me think how happy I was there when I had your dear company.” Until his return she continued to overlook the building, and on August 6th following, writes again as to the progress of the building: “The outside of the house is fiddling work, which takes up more time than can be imagined; and while the schafolds are up, the windows must be boarded up, but as soon as that is done, your own apartment may be furnished.” And a week after: “I have been this day to Kensington, which looks really very well, at least to a poor body like me, who have been so long condemned to this place (Whitehall) and see nothing but water and wall.”
The work of improving Kensington House continued for another year or more, costing during this period £60,000. It was, however, far from finished, when, in November, 1691, a serious fire occurred, necessitating re-building at a cost of upwards of £6,000. From the year 1691 to 1696 another £35,000 was spent in further “altering the old house,” and in additional works of decoration in the galleries and other rooms—details as to which will be given in our description of those apartments.