Kensington Palace

• Client: Sir Robert McAlpine
• Sector: Historic
• Services: Firestopping & Commercial Decorating
• Region: Kensington, London
• Project Value: £12 million

Project Overview

Kensington Palace is one of London’s most famous and historic Royal landmarks. Since its construction in the late 17^th century, it has been home to numerous members of the Royal Family. 

It was a privilege for Sentinel, the capital’s favourite specialist decorating sub-contractor, to be commissioned by main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine and Purcell Architects to contribute commercial decorating and firestopping services to a major renovation project at the palace. 

Restoration work was carried out at Kensington Palace for more than seven years. One strand of the project was the repair and representation of the King’s State Apartments within the palace itself.  

Another was the extensive renovation of the Orangery, a separate building within the palace grounds that has a compelling history of its own dating back over 300 years.  

The reopening of the Orangery at the start of May 2024 constituted the final piece of a delicate, extensive and prestigious jigsaw of development in this corner of west London.  

At the heart of the work was a desire to bring back “authenticity and vibrancy” to rooms and buildings that have played a significant role in the story of the United Kingdom.  

Extensive research by Historic Royal Palaces helped the restoration team to complete an accurate revival of the Cupola Room, the King’s Drawing Room and the King’s Gallery so that they now reflect the character of 18^th-century courtly designs.   

As a specialist decorating contractor with extensive experience across a wide range of restoration projects, Sentinel was ideally placed to deliver a high-grade level of decoration appropriate to the Royal surroundings here, and to contribute modern levels of passive fire protection to the buildings.  

Project Brief

More than 400,000 people visited Kensington Palace in 2023, placing this fascinating location in the top 100 tourist attractions in the UK. That number should be higher for 2024 onwards, now that the King’s State Apartments and the Orangery are both fully open again.  

The palace has always attracted a steady stream of visitors from across London and beyond, and its profile was boosted when it was the epicentre of mourning following the sudden death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.  

However, by 2017 it was felt that the palace interiors needed revitalisation.  As Purcell, the architect behind the new design, put it, the Grade I listed building had been “progressively stripped” of its artwork and furniture through the decades.  

The Cupola Room was completed to the specifications of George I in the 1720s, while the King’s Gallery and the King’s Drawing Room go back even further.  

Sentinel, the UK’s preferred specialist decorating contractor, was invited to work on all three elements of the King’s State Apartments as they were restored to their former glory. The King’s Gallery, for instance, now looks much as it did following the decoration work carried out by William Kent in the 1720s, some 300 years ago.   

The Orangery, meanwhile, is a standalone structure some 100 metres to the north of the main palace building. Built for Queen Anne in 1704, this was always – despite its name – far more than merely a greenhouse to house her orange trees. 

It has long been an entertaining space and is now home to a classy destination for lunch and afternoon tea.   

Sentinel, a specialist decorating contractor with extensive expertise, carried out the commercial decoration of the Orangery. We also delivered firestopping measures to ensure this historic old structure was safe by today’s standards.   

Challenges / Solution

The biggest challenge associated with this project was to deliver a standard of work befitting the illustrious setting. We set out to deliver a quality of finish appropriate to our status as specialist decorators – and to the location, which has been a fixture of Royal life for more than three centuries.  

We were also charged with ensuring that the passive fire protection measures in the renovated Orangery were compliant with the more stringent regulations in place today.  

Working on an historic site always carries with it the requirement to create a new and vibrant space that also preserves the authentic character of the original structure.  

People like to visit a space that is fresh and welcoming, but which also carries echoes of the ambience of their surroundings hundreds of years ago.  

The extensive expertise that is built into our team of specialist decorators ensured that Sentinel was confident in its ability to deliver precisely what was required.  

The Result

By the time Sentinel had completed its work at Kensington Palace, a high-quality finish had been delivered throughout the King’s State Apartments and the renovated Orangery.  

Making an old building fire safe by today’s standards is not straightforward. One of the factors that helped us to achieve this was our use of the Golden Thread, the new process for communication between contractors working on a building project.  

This ensures that information passes swiftly, securely and effectively between partners, which in turn identifies and addresses building safety risks throughout the development process.  

Our work on the Orangery, where the renovation project lasted for seven years, was particularly satisfying. This is a scheduled ancient monument, a Grade I listed building, and the new appearance was carefully designed to reflect the original elements and style of the structure.  

Visitors are now able to take refreshments in a place that hosted extravagant Royal gatherings through the decades.  

So impressive was the overall renovation of the Orangery that the project was presented with the Contractor’s Choice prize at the prestigious 2023 Brick Awards.