The Colston connection: how Prince William’s Kensington Palace home is linked to slavery

Palace was residence of William III, who was given shares in slave-transport company, and successive monarchs involved in trade

An imposing bronze statue stands tall on the manicured lawns at Kensington Palace, a formidable tribute to William III, who built the palace as a royal residence in the bustling heart of London. William's namesake, the current Prince of Wales, grew up there with his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, and today it is his official London residence with his wife, Catherine.

Awareness has grown in recent years of William III's personal investment in the transatlantic slave trade at the time he built Kensington Palace, and of successive English monarchs' involvement in the industrial-scale enslavement and exploitation of Black people.