ZUMAPress, Google MapsJust how does a royal get from Point A to Point Baby in London?
Well, it will certainly be a road less traveled on the day (or night) that Kate Middleton makes the trip to St. Mary's Hospital for the birth of her and Prince William's first child!
Presuming she goes into labor while at Kensington Palace, here is a look at the route Kate is expected to take in order to get to the hospital's luxurious Lindo Wing in the most efficient amount of time:
First of all, it should take about 11 minutes for the duchess to be transported from Kensington Palace in West London, where she's living temporarily in the Nottingham Cottage while the quarters she will ultimately share with Will are being renovated, to the hospital in Paddington.
The palace is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, while Paddington is in Westminster.
If Kate needs a ride between midnight and 5 a.m., when Hyde Park is closed (even to the royal family!), she will have to be driven around the perimeter of the 350-acre expanse, which along with three other parks forms a chain that starts at the entrance of Kensington Palace and leads past Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade off Whitehall road.
But let's say Kate is going to the hospital at any other hour of the day: In that case she will be driven—almost certainly with a police escort—through Hyde Park on a route that will take her past the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain.
The memorial, dedicated in 2004 to William's late mother, is located in the southwest corner of the park, just south of the Serpentine, the lake that marks the boundary between the park and Kensington Gardens.
They will exit out the north end of Hyde Park and proceed to St. Mary's Hospital, where both William and Prince Harry were born.
Parking hasn't been allowed in front of St. Mary's Hospital since July 1, but Kate's escort probably would have driven her up to a more discrete entry regardless.
"There are so many different ways in to the Lindo," Joe Sene of London's Vantage News photo agency told E! News, referring to the luxury wing of birthing suites where the royal baby will be born. "They can easily ghost her in or out."
Photographers have been lined up outside the hospital for near two weeks already—but we learned today that the expectant mum was too wily for them and managed to go in and out for a checkup on Monday without anyone being the wiser.
We wonder if she gave the Hyde Park route a test run!