In 1689 William III bought the Jacobean mansion originally known as Nottingham House from his Secretary of State, the Earl of Nottingham, and commissioned Christopher Wren to extend and improve the house.

This included the construction of Royal Apartments for the King and Queen, a council chamber, the Chapel Royal and the Great Stairs.

A private road was laid out from the Palace to Hyde Park Corner, wide enough for three or four carriages to travel abreast down it, part of which survives today as Rotten Row.

Until the death of George II in 1760, Kensington Palace was the favourite residence of successive sovereigns.

Queen Victoria was born and brought up in the Palace and news of her accession in 1837 was brought to her there by the Lord Chamberlain and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It had been expected that Victoria would reign from either Kensington or St James's Palace but almost immediately she moved to Buckingham Palace and never again stayed at Kensington.

Queen Mary (grandmother of the present Queen) was born at Kensington in 1867. The Duke of Edinburgh stayed there in his grandmother's apartment in 1947 between his engagement and his marriage.