Hauntings

The royal ghosts of Kensington Palace

Also known as: George II in the King's Gallery; Peter the Wild Boy's ghost

Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens

Reports undated; George II died 1760, Sophia 1848

Kensington Palace has been a royal residence since the late 17th century. George II died there on 25 October 1760, and Princess Sophia, a daughter of George III, died there in 1848 after years under the influence of John Conroy, according to the Wikipedia article on the palace. Those two deaths are the roots of two of its best known ghost stories.

A popular summary on Grunge says that George II is said to wander the King's Gallery muttering his last words, which it gives as Why won't they come. It also lists Princess Sophia and two Carolines, of Brunswick and of Ansbach, among the reported apparitions, and mentions a housekeeper's report of a woman in a Regency dress. The most haunted wing is said to be the one now used by the Prince and Princess of Wales, where Peter the Wild Boy is said to have attracted attention near a nursery. The Spooky Isles and Martin Belam accounts of a walk through the area name George II and Sophia as the palace's ghosts and add that an air of melancholy is said to hang over it.

Peter the Wild Boy was a feral child found in the woods near Hamelin and brought to England by George I. He is painted into the mural on the King's Staircase. Londonist's haunted tube map points out that it is a little odd that he should haunt the palace, since he died in his 70s in Hertfordshire. The sightings quoted in these sources carry no names or dates and the story of George II's last words is a retelling.

The record is therefore a collection of palace tradition. The one firm fact is that the palace was the death place of George II and Sophia. A second source, hauntedplaces.org, repeats the report that George II's voice is heard in the building and that a man in white period clothing is seen in the courtyard, again with no witness named.

The state apartments are open to ticketed visitors; much of the palace is private residence.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open, admission charged
Location
51.506, -0.188 (Sited to the building or field)

Sources: Grunge, Why Kensington Palace Is Rumored To Be Haunted [other]; Londonist, The Haunted Tube Map [other]; currybetdotnet, Haunted Knightsbridge, Kensington and Notting Hill [other]; Wikipedia, Kensington Palace [other]

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