Around the palace: Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and Billionaires’ Row

Kensington Palace sits at the western edge of two royal parks. Step out of the palace gates and you are in Kensington Gardens, with Hyde Park beyond.

Kensington Gardens

The gardens were the palace’s private grounds until the eighteenth century. Queen Caroline, wife of George II, had them laid out on a grand scale, with the Round Pond in front of the palace and the Long Water, the Kensington end of the lake she created in the 1730s. Today they are a free public park, open every day.

• The Sunken Garden, beside the palace, with the statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, unveiled in 2021.
• The Italian Gardens, fountains at the head of the Long Water from the 1860s.
• The Peter Pan statue, by George Frampton, put up in 1912.
• The Albert Memorial, Queen Victoria’s monument to Prince Albert, on the southern edge.
• The Diana Memorial Playground, opened in 2000 near the palace.

Hyde Park

Henry VIII used Hyde Park as a royal hunting ground, and so it remained for about a century until Charles I opened it to the public in 1637. Charles II used it for military reviews. Queen Caroline joined it to Kensington Gardens, and the Serpentine, the lake that runs between them, is her work. Rotten Row, the riding track along the south side, began as William III’s lamplit road from Kensington to St James’s.

Kensington Palace Gardens

Many visitors are surprised to find this is the name of a street. Known as “Billionaires’ Row”, it runs along the west side of the palace grounds. It was first called Queen’s Road, was renamed in 1870, and was built on land that belonged to the palace. The Crown still owns the freehold, and the street is lined with embassies and some of the most expensive houses in London.