When Queen Elizabeth moved permanently from Buckingham Palace, her nearly 70-year-old home, Prince William and Kate Middleton also said goodbye to their long-ago home.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are moving from London’s Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage, a Windsor Home Park property in the Royal City of Windsor, just a 10-minute walk from the Queen’s new permanent residence.
Since then, the Queen has made her weekend retreat at Windsor Castle her main address, as Buckingham Palace is undergoing a long-term renovation.
Adelaide Cottage was the couple’s first choice when looking for a permanent home to move in with their three young children: George, 8, Charlotte, 7, and Louis, 4.
Prince William and Kate Middleton leave a Thanksgiving service for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022.AP A map showing the location of Adelaide Cottage from Windsor Castle. Google Maps
There was Frogmore House to consider, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle lived for a short time, but the couple believed the renovations would cost too much to make it a family residence, according to The Sun.
“Finding a way to make Adelaide Cottage work seems to be the best and only option,” a source told the publication. “There are problems with all the other houses, so Adelaide will be the favorite.”
The property consists of Adelaide Cottage and Adelaide Lodge, and is arguably the most aesthetically pleasing residence on the royal estate.
The four-bedroom residence is a property of “grace and favor,” meaning that the queen is free to grant it to whomever she wishes.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to move to the newly renovated Adelaide Cottage, just 10 minutes from the Queen’s residence. Royal Collection Adelaide Cottage was originally built for Queen Adelaide, the wife of King William IV, in 1831. Royal Collection The cottage was renovated in 2015. Royal Collection
A notable former resident included King George VI’s team, Peter Townsend, whose unfortunate relationship with Princess Margaret in the 1940s and 1950s was making waves in the country at the time.
Built in 1831 for the wife of King William IV, Queen Adelaide, the property is located in the heart of Crown Estate’s 655-acre private royal park and includes the lodge: a red-brick double-façade building with raised chimneys. and a sloping second. floor-to-ceiling windows and the original construction of the cottage, and a cottage with stucco facade.
The original porch is still preserved today, as are its well-kept gardens surrounding it, which remain almost intact for almost 200 years.
Today, other features added to the property include a gravel driveway, a red brick outbuilding, and a small house for a little safety detail.
The royal retreat has been used by a number of monarchs: Queen Victoria often visited the hut for breakfast or tea. Royal Collection The master bedroom of the country house has a gilded dolphin-roofed roof and a rope decoration from a 19th-century royal yacht. Royal Collection
“My father and I crossed the Home Park for tea at Adelaide Cottage [the Queen Mother] has lent Jackie and Joan Philipps during the war, “recalls Alathea Fitzalan Howard, a close friend of Princess Elizabeth (now the Queen) and Margaret as a girl, in her diaries.” I loved it. It usually represents this idea of a small world within a world of its own, which is so characteristic of Windsor Castle and its environs. “
Built by architect Jeffry Wyatville, the house was described as “elegantly chaste”, according to an 1800 Mirror article. Features include two cabins, plus a retirement room for the queen, as well as ‘a maid’s room as well as furniture from the old royal lodge.
Apart from their residence at Kensington Palace, Prince William and Kate also lived in Sandringham’s Anmer Hall in Norfolk.