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The “golden gates” at Kensington Palace are set for a new look —when a Tardis-like police box is installed nearby.

The gilded wrought-iron gates became a shrine to Diana, Princess of Wales when thousands of mourners laid flowers and left messages after her death in a car crash in 1997. But the view of the Grade I-listed palace is to change when the wooden police box is built to boost security for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Kensington & Chelsea council has given permission for a 1.6 metre-square structure immediately to the west of the gates on the south side of the palace. It will stand on the lawn between black iron railings and the palace’s high brick perimeter wall.

The application from the royal household property section at Buckingham Palace comes almost a year after the Standard revealed its plans to install anti-terror air-lock doors, pop-up bollards and CCTV cameras.

William and Kate moved into a cottage in the palace grounds after their wedding in April 2011. Now expecting their first child, they will move in the summer into Princess Margaret’s former apartment after a £1 million renovation is completed.

The council has imposed a series of conditions on the police box’s construction to “protect the character and appearance” of the 300-year-old palace.

Edward Impey, who wrote the official illustrated history of Kensington Palace, said: “Whoever wants it there ... needs to bear in mind the popular and historical significance of that view.” He added: “Every time somebody wants to do something at Kensington there is a lot of discussion about making sure the significance of the views and the historical significance are taken into account.”

The dark blue box with a glazed door will stand in the garden at the east corner of the north boundary wall, with a short access path across the lawn. The plans state: “The proposed location... was considered to best meet the operational requirements with least impact on the site both visually and in terms of construction.”

The duke and duchess’s spokesman declined to comment.