Source: Associated Press
The former home of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London is being rebranded as “The Enchanted Palace” in an effort to lure tourists from the city’s popular West End attractions.
In this interactive age, it’s not enough for a stately palace to offer royal art, staid banquet rooms, and roped-off thrones, so curators have opted for fashion, performance art, and a bit of Alice in Wonderland fantasy. The exhibit, meant to draw viewers into the lives of past palace residents, uses intense lighting, actors and musicians to set the mood. One man even coaxes sound from a saw with a violin bow.
The tone is set by the Room of Royal Sorrows. No, it’s not about Diana and her fractured fairytale marriage to Prince Charles; it’s a dramatization of the emotional torment of Queen Mary II as she tried in vain a produce an heir. It is set in her bedchamber, giving the display an unsettling authenticity. On the bed is a figure of the queen, dressed in blue, face hidden.
“The first time you walk into the room, it has an aura of sadness, but also incredible beauty,” said designer Marcus Wilmont, part of the team that decorated the room and came up with the outfit worn by the mannequin representing Queen Mary. “She tried really hard, but she had many miscarriages. She was a very loved queen, and we wanted to try to capture her spirit.”
The somber tone is set by dozens of antique glass bottles known as “tear catchers.” In times of mourning, tears were put in the bottles “to catch the sorrow” even though they would soon evaporate, Wilmont said.
Visitors are given a chance to leave a handwritten note stating the last time they cried.
Not every display is laced with tragedy. One of Diana’s elegant ball gowns is on display, and Vivienne Westwood, one of Britain’s most revered designers, came up with a fanciful — and fantastic — dress designed to be worn by a rebellious princess.
Being of Service
The memorializing of Princess Diana is almost a national pastime in Great Britain, as she was, no doubt one of the most tireless proponents of being a part of a volunteer service organization that was near and dear to her heart, namely focusing on the obliteration of land mines and land mine awareness. But Princess Di was so loved and adored, that to be able to tour her home in a state of somberness or perhaps even humility, is a way for the people who worshiped her (and still do) to create more than just another memorial website. This is a way for everyone to understand the British Aristocracy and its history of Royal Life in England, as perhaps even Diana herself lived it.
The room where British kings met with advisers, foreign diplomats and occasionally the public has also been redone, with a colorful new throne that visitors are encouraged to try out. A Room of Enlightenment features a bust of Isaac Newton topped by a Stephen Jones hat that includes a mock red apple, covered with rhinestones, to commemorate Newton’s moment of illumination.
The exhibit also includes The Room of Royal Secrets and the Rooms of Lost Childhood, all to evoke the bittersweet nature of real royal life as lived, not imagined. Many royals are portrayed as lonely and isolated despite the magnificent sweeping views of Kensington Gardens and the multimillion dollar art collection that lines the interior palace walls.
“We really wanted to try something completely different that gave us a way to take a fresh look at the palace’s history and the lives of the people who lived here,” said Alexandra Kim, one of the curators of the two-year show. “We want people to connect with the emotions.”
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My Take:
There are so many tourists attractions to visit in London and across Great Britain, but perhaps none are more popular than Kensington Palace. This was where Princess Di lived, of course, but it’s also a fantastically beautiful park and open space that literally sits in the middle of the city’s high streets and shopping frenzied neighborhoods, giving visitors and residents alike a place to escape the hustle and traffic nearby.
Princess Di certain deserves to be memorialized. There are plenty of birthday websites out there that honor her on her day each year, and fans of hers who skate around the park near Kensington Palace in crazy T shirts with her image on the front. Others, perhaps students living abroad under US volunteer programs in their own funny t-shirts, who stop to honor the memory of Princess Diana at the gates to the palace doors, which sit at the entrance to Hyde Park.
It’s previously been pretty tough to get inside the palace and you’d think you were passing through some archaic air cargo security check point just walking around the backside of the palace on days when there may be an event going on inside. But opening up the palace to the people as a museum is going to lift the veil of secrecy and exclusion that pervades throughout so many parts of Royal London habitats, and clearly, as a woman who fought to remain part of common society at any level she could, it’s pretty much a given that Princess Di would approve.
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Other Resources
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Source: Louisville Courier Journal