FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR HOME EDUCATOR EVENT
Use this link to book. Places must be pre-booked in advance.
Our registration desk at the Clore Learning Centre will be open to admit visitors from 10am.
We advise arriving before 2.00pm to ensure that you have time to explore the site and can join in planned activities. Last admission to the event is at 3.30pm, and the palace closes at 6.00pm.
Please arrive at the Clore Learning Centre at Kensington Palace. From here, you will collect wristbands which will act as your tickets to enter the palace, so please take care of them. You will also be able to pick up printed maps at the centre to enhance your visit.
Your ticket will give you access to Kensington Palace site on Thursday 24 October 2024. To support your visit, we have developed a range of activities specifically for home educated children and young people and their parents/carers.
You will have the chance to meet three fascinating queens who made Kensington Palace their home: Queen Anne, Queen Caroline and Queen Victoria. Through Q&As you will discover how they used the palace, shaped it, and were –sometimes - constrained by it. In addition, you will discover more about palace life through an object handling activity and can explore an aspect of the queens’ lives through a craft activity and learn more about the history of the palace in a lunchtime talk.
You are also welcome to explore the rest of the palace. There are three main exhibition routes: Queen's State Apartments, King's State Apartments and Victoria A Royal Childhood.
Our current temporary exhibition - Untold Lives: a palace at work - is in the Piggott Gallery and uncovers the stories of those that worked in the palace over 300 years ago.
Prior to your visit, you can explore our website to learn more about the history of Kensington Palace and the three queens we are focussing on for this event.
Kensington Palace welcomes all visitors, and we endeavour to ensure visitors with disabilities enjoy the full experience. Our accessibility guide provides more detailed information.
In addition, there are sights and sounds around the palace which might trigger those in your group who have sensory issues. This includes:
- Audio and film projections
- Hard surfaces that can make the palace echoey
- Dramatic lighting changes
- Light open spaces and darker, enclosed rooms
- Content of some of the paintings on display might be triggering
We will have a space in the Clore Learning Centre, outside the palace, available for families to drop in throughout the day for a sensory break or to have lunch. However, please be aware that these rooms are available to all our home educated visitors. We regret that the nature of the site prevents us from being able to guarantee a quiet space.
Admission costs £6 per child. Adults are free on a 1 adult to 3 children ratio (under 5s are included in this ratio). Tickets for additional adults cost £18.40 each.
Buggies can be taken into the palace; however, storage facilities are limited so you may have to keep your buggy with you.
The palace does not have any cloakroom or left luggage facilities.
You are welcome to feed anywhere on site. However, if you prefer a more secluded location you may want to use the quiet space in the Clore Learning Centre.
There are toilets, all with disabled access and baby changing facilities:
- on the ground floor of the palace, off the Stone Hall, and by the cafe
- inside the Clore Learning Centre (ambulant and changing places toilet)
There are baby changing facilities in the toilets at the palace. There are also facilities at the Clore Learning Centre.
Our standard audio guides can be collected just off the main entrance. They are free to use and offer 8 different languages, including a BSL version. The guides have a neck strap making them easy to carry. Sound can be controlled, and they have an induction loop facility.
There are picnic areas throughout the site, the largest being the East Lawn in front of the Palace. You are also able to picnic on the lawns next to the Clore Learning Centre and in the Centre’s courtyard. We have a range of options if you wish to buy lunch on site including our palace café as well as the Orangery restaurant, situated alongside the Clore Learning Centre.
There is also a small lunchroom at the Clore Learning Centre.
We will be hosting similar events next academic year at the Tower of London in January 2025 and Hampton Court Palace in April 2025. We are finalising details and will share on the Home Educators webpage and on social media in the autumn.
If you have booked but found that you can no longer attend, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing us at kensingtonlearning@hrp.org.uk . As per our booking terms and conditions, we will be unable to refund or exchange your ticket but we will be able to offer your place to another family on our waiting list.
If you find you cannot attend on the day itself, please call us on 0791 758 5182.