Princess Diana statue to be specially opened to the public on anniversary of her death

The artwork was unveiled by Prince William and Prince Harry in July

    The statue of Diana, Princess of Wales will be specially opened to the public to mark the 24th anniversary of her death on Tuesday.

    The Princess was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.

    Due to the pandemic, Kensington Palace and its gardens are operating reduced opening days and are usually only accessible to the public from Wednesday to Sunday.

    But Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) said special arrangements had been made to allow visitors to view the statue from the Cradle Walk around the Sunken Garden where it stands from 3pm to 5pm on Tuesday.

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    The statue was officially unveiled by Diana's sons, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex, during a private ceremony on 1 July – which would have been their mother's 60th birthday.

    A spokesman for Historic Royal Palaces said: "We acknowledge that there will be interest in viewing the statue on that day.

    Harry and William unveiled the statue of their late mother in July

    "So we will be providing access to the Cradle Walk which is essentially the beautiful walkway around the Sunken Garden.

    "We will be opening that up, freely available, for passers-by or anybody who wants to stop and take a moment on that Tuesday, specially for the anniversary."

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    The statue will be open to the public on Tuesday

    The artwork, cast in bronze and designed by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, shows the Princess surrounded by three children and depicts her in the later years of her life.

    Beneath the statue is a plinth engraved with Diana's name and the date of the unveiling, while a paving stone in front is engraved with an extract after the poem , which was in the programme for the 2007 memorial service for the Princess.

    Kensington Palace's Sunken Garden – one of the places Diana loved most at the palace – has been redesigned during the past two years and features more than 4,000 individual flowers, including forget-me-nots, which were adored by the Princess.

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