In Princess Diana’s footsteps: a walk through London, past Buckingham Palace to Kensington Palace and Gardens

With 2022 marking the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, tourists in London can tread in her footsteps on an 11km-long walking trail

The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk cuts through four of London’s eight royal parks and passes Buckingham Palace and her Kensington Palace residence

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Kensington Palace in London, where Princess Diana lived for 16 years and one of the landmarks on the 11km Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk. Photo: Ronan O’Connell

Published: 4:15pm, 31 Aug 2022Updated: 6:31pm, 31 Aug 2022

As couples picnic, children romp and friends joke in a serene London park, my mood is comparatively sombre. Staring at a plaque dedicated to Princess Diana, I’m imagining what it must have been like for Britain’s Prince William, who was just 15 years old when his mother died in a car crash on August 31, 1997.

Twenty-five years later, Diana looms so large over London that many tourists follow her trail across the British capital. The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, 11km (7 miles) long, takes in four of London’s eight royal parks and is charted by 90 metal plaques planted in footpaths.

Being Australian and the same age as Prince William, I knew Diana from reading articles in the gossip magazines my mother bought each week. Those stories were typically critical or controversial, and eventually this rumour mill contributed to Diana’s death.

A 2008 British inquest into the crash found it was caused by the reckless driving of both Diana’s chauffeur and the paparazzi vehicles pursuing them.

A view of Kensington Gardens. The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk passes by Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and Gardens. Photo: Ronan O’Connell

Diana was perhaps the biggest global celebrity of her era, beloved by millions of people worldwide not just for her charm and stature, but also her charity work.