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After the death of Princess Diana an extraordinary outpouring of grief occurred included laying tributes at every possible main site in London... The main focus points being Kensington Palace ,Buckingham Palace and Harrods. I felt compelled to visit these places to pay my respects for a person that i had admired and respected for so many years. As i left Kensington Underground station ,i could see the crowds lining up along the high street, and this was about 400 metres from the park entrance . Me and my sister got in the queue and straight away we could see little bouquets of flowers laying on the side of the pavement with a small note attached that simply said 'goodbye Diana R.I.P.'....There were small groups of flowers placed at the start of every side street leading up to the park. A little taster of what was to come. As i turned the corner to enter the park, I was greeted with a vision that will live with me until my dying days. Every fence surrounding the park was covered with Banners ,Ribbons notes of love for Diana and also notes questioning why Diana wa dead...!!Pavements were covered with flowers, teddy Bears and Burning Candles. The well wishes slowly crouching down to read the attached notes that accompanied the flowers .Every tree had Banners ,Ribbons ,Flowers and even Football shirts hanging from the branches, a couple of the football shirts were autographed by he teams players, obviously a treasured momento of the person that had left it there. At the base of every tree was more flowers and candles. the smell of Lavender drifted through the Autumn air. As i walked to the main focal point, there were small groups of flowers and baskets, these seemed to be acting as a 'sideshow ' for many well wishers as they waited for the main attraction of the Palace Gates. The perfume from the candles and flowers were getting stronger and seemed to add to the atmosphere of a very special moment in time. I noticed at this point, that most of the tears had subsided and had now given way to a disbelieving silence, many people still in total shock at the events that had unfolded in the previous 10 days, just gazing in wonderment at the vast mountain of flowers that had gathered before them. It was not possible at first to get directly to the front of the queue straight away because of the vast amount of people that had gathered . Everyone that i saw behaved impeccably, allowing the old and the young through so that they could lay their tributes to Princess Diana. While i waited patiently for my turn to come ,the smell of flowers was overwhelming, the smell of fresh flowers entwined with musky smell of rotting flowers which lay underneath the vast carpet. My path was cleared and the crowd seem to open up like a giant pair of curtains to reveal a mass of colour, the like of which had never been seen before and i do not think will ever be seen again. It was a bright sunny day, so the sun highlighted the spectacular range of colours that were on show. The crowd of thousands that had gathered to pay their respects to Diana were silent, the only sounds that could be heard was the sound of cellophane wrappers blowing gently in the Autumn breeze and also the click of cameras ,As everyone tried to get permanent reminders of a unique occasion. The edge of the carpet of flowers were about 100 metres from the gates of the palace where the laying of flowers begun on 31st August and were reaching heights of 4ft from the edge where we stood. The width of the carpet must have been about 150 metres at the furthest points. As far as i could see into the flowers, everywhere was a last 3 to 4 layers deep with bouquets of flowers, teddy bears were wrapped in clear plastic wrap to protect them from any rain with small notes scribbled in crayon from small children saying " My nanny will protect you in heaven ".....After 15 minutes of photo taking and reading the condolence letters, me and my sister decided to move to the side to get more photographs. As i approached the railings by the palace gates ,I saw banners and flags from countries all over the world. I spoke briefly to one woman who had made the trip especially from Canada to attend the funeral. This was my first trip to Kensington Palace, So i decided to walk around the grounds and explore all of the park. All along the edge of the railings were tributes of every kind including Pictures and Paintings .We came up to a statue of Queen Victoria. This had not escaped the flowers e.t.c, many letters proclaiming Diana as "Queen of Hearts" or "The True Queen" I would estimate that there was about 8000 people in the park at any one given time .And still thousands more came to pay their respects to Princess Diana. This extraordinary event that unfolded at Kensington Palace was repeated all over the country ,but to a lesser extent. On 31st August 1997,The whole world came to a shuddering halt, The powerful outpouring of grief showed us all what a very special person Princess Diana was. |
