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.

She is buried at Althorp Park, her childhood home 100km north of London. Yet Diana’s spirit seems to illuminate London’s Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, where I stand in earnest frame of mind.

Fortunately my solemnity is short-lived. The surroundings – two of the prettiest urban green spaces in Europe – elevate my mood.

Shaped like a figure of eight, the Diana memorial walk extends beyond Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park to neighbouring St James’s Park and Green Park. The plaques point the way. Designed by British sculptor Alec Peever, each is embellished with a rose.

As well as being a traditional emblem of England, this flower will forever be linked to Diana thanks to Elton John’s 1997 tribute to the princess, a re-recording of Candle in the Wind that begins with the lyric: “Goodbye, England’s rose”. The record became the highest-selling single of the past 50 years.

Beds of roses decorate St James’s Park, where I first join the trail at its eastern end. This walk was launched in 2000 along with the Diana Memorial Playground, in Kensington Gardens.

As explained on England’s Royal Parks website, these projects “celebrate the Princess’s affection for the open spaces around her home in Kensington Palace, and her love of children”.

She made the ‘fairy princess dress’ that Princess Diana wore to get married

Diana could occasionally be seen walking through these tranquil spaces, albeit flanked by security. By following her trail, I am able not just to absorb the natural splendour, but also admire many historic buildings linked to Diana.

St James’s Palace, north of the park of the same name, is laced with the brightest and darkest of Diana memories. It was here, in 1981, that she waited in an ivory silk gown with a 7.5 metre (25 feet)-long sequin-encrusted train before her wedding to Charles.

This red-brick Tudor building was also where Diana’s body lay in state for days, in the palace’s chapel, before her funeral.

Further west, through Green Park, I glimpse Clarence House and Spencer House. The former is a stately royal residence where Diana lived for a period after her engagement to Charles. The latter, 150 metres to the north, was the London residence of Diana’s family.

Heading in the same direction, I soon encounter the hulking Buckingham Palace, its front gates swarmed by photo-seeking tourists. Although this is the headquarters of Britain’s royal family, and home of her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, Diana grew uncomfortable in its opulent interiors.

The princess alleged in interviews that she received little support from members of the royal household, including her husband, whom she divorced in 1996.

From Green Park the trail goes beneath the towering Wellington Arch, past the colourful Hyde Park Rose Garden and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain towards her sanctuary, Kensington Palace and Gardens.

She lived here for 16 years until her death. It was where she nursed her two sons, William and Harry, and watched them grow into adolescence.

Tourists may explore the landscaped gardens and lavish interior of this palace, but I walk on to the playground dedicated to Diana. I picture her standing there, listening to what I can hear – the laughter of children frolicking.

It is an uplifting end to a tour of Diana’s London.

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