Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace began its royal life as an escape from the city. In sixteen eighty-nine, King William the Third and Queen Mary the Second purchased a modest Jacobean villa then known as Nottingham House. The King suffered from severe asthma and sought the higher elevation and cleaner air of the Kensington village to find relief from the smog and dampness of the riverside Whitehall Palace. He hired the famed architect Christopher Wren to expand the villa, but the rush to build was so intense that one wing of the construction collapsed, injuring several workers and killing one.