Excavations at Kensington Palace

By Becky Lythe
Website editing: Graham Sherwood

Pre-Construct Archaeology recently conducted a series of archaeological investigations on behalf of Historic Royal Palaces in the grounds of Kensington Palace. One trench was dug on land adjacent to the east wing in a grassed garden area termed “Alice’s Tree”, three were opened in White Court, the supposed core of the Jacobean Palace, and a further two were excavated in the Rose Garden.

The earliest building on the site of Kensington Palace, created for George Coppin (Clerk of the Crown, was constructed between 1605 and 1620. He commissioned a villa-style Jacobean mansion, probably designed by land surveyor and antiquary John Thorpe. Internally, the building consisted of a long, central hall, orientated north-south, with rooms leading off to the east and west. This would become the core of Kensington Palace, around which later additions would be made. The building became the property of the crown during the reign of William and Mary, when the monarchs purchased it from Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham.

They commissioned a series of works designed to modernise the building, carried out under the instruction of Sir Christopher Wren (Surveyor of the King’s Works, 1669 to 1718) and Nicholas Hawksmoor (Clerk of Works, 1689-1715). Further improvements, renovations and repairs were made between the 18th and 20th centuries, the most extensive being those undertaken by William Benson (Surveyor of the King’s Works, 1718 to 1719) during the reign of George I (1714-1727) .

A layer of natural terrace gravel and sand, forming part of the Kempton Park sequence, was observed in the base of all six trenches. In Alice’s Tree Trench, a layer of clay sealed this, presumably dumped in order to artificially landscape the grounds between the 17th and 18th centuries. An 18th century drain, which once served the Palace’s eastern wing, truncated the layer.

18th Century drain in Alice’s Tree Trench	Foundations of the northern wall of White Court

The foundations of the Palace were observed in Trench 2 during excavations in White Court. They were composed of late 17th to 18th century masonry suggesting that, contrary to predictions, the Jacobean core did not survive in this location. A late post-medieval masonry foundation was also observed in Trench 3.

In the Rose Garden, undisturbed sequences of natural sealed by subsoil and topsoil were recorded.

Excavations in the Rose Garden

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