Victoria: A Royal Childhood

Discover the story of Princess Victoria, the young girl destined to be queen, in the rooms where she was born and raised at Kensington Palace.

This permanent exhibition, opened to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Victoria's birth, explores how an indulged young princess blossomed into the independent and iconic monarch we remember.

The display includes remarkable objects relating to Victoria's early years – including a poignant scrapbook of mementos created by her German governess, Baroness Lehzen, and Victoria's doll house.

Top image: Queen Victoria, when a Girl by Alexandre-Jean Dubois Drahonet, 1832. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019

When

Open

In line with palace opening hours

Ticketing information

Included in palace admission (Members go free)

Buy Kensington Palace tickets

Things to see

Photograph of the Educating Victoria Room in Kensington Palace showing a desk and coffee table.

Image: The Educating Victoria room in the Victoria: A Royal Childhood exhibition, Kensington Palace. © Historic Royal Palaces

Photograph of the Play Room (North drawing room) in Kensington Palace with a chandelier in the middle of the ceiling, mirrors and a fireplace.

Image: Victoria at Play room. © Historic Royal Palaces

Photograph of the Family Feuds Room (Queen Victoria's Room)

Image: Family Feuds room. © Historic Royal Palaces

As part of the work to recreate the rooms where Victoria grew up, Historic Royal Palaces curators have carried out extensive research into the decorative schemes she would have known as a little girl.

Curators worked with interiors specialists to recreate the Regency wallpaper on Victoria's doll house, combining this remarkable piece of history with archival samples to inform the decor throughout the exhibition.

In the birth room, the Duke of Kent's letters from the day of Victoria's birth — detailing everything from the layout of the rooms at the palace to the view from the window — provided an incredible resource for how this historic space might have looked during Victoria's childhood.

Learn more on our blog by Lucy Worsley

A large red room with a colourful child's model theatre at one end and chairs displayed in front — *Image: The Royal Performance room in Victoria: A Royal Childhood. © Historic Royal Palaces*

Photograph of the Red Saloon in Kensington Palace showing a long table with chairs with a striking red carpet. — *Image: The Red Saloon. © Historic Royal Palaces*

The Duke of Kent had an unexpected flair for fashion and colour when it came to decorating his own palace. And while Victoria complained that her childhood home was bleak and threadbare, it was in fact comfortable and colourful.

Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator, Historic Royal Palaces

Watch Victoria's first morning as Queen

Learn more about a fascinating document, now on display as part of Victoria: A Royal Childhood, and Victoria’s first morning as Queen from experts Claudia Williams and Victoria Iglikowski.

This document is on loan from The National Archives.

Video transcript of Victoria's first morning as Queen

Follow along with an interactive transcript of Victoria's first morning as Queen on YouTube. A link to open the transcript can be found in the description.