Sussex Residences


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Mirabel said:
Yes, wouldn't it have been simpler to gift the Sussexes Frogmore House, given the revamping needed for Frogmore Cottage?

I know Frogmore House is used for events, but I still think it would be easier to turn it into a private residence, and it is much more attractive than Frogmore Cottage, imo.


Also- if Harry and Meghan don't wish to occupy the rooms at Kensington Palace, who will live there?
Staff? Or will Eugenie get moved to a bigger apartment when she becomes pregnant?
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The issue is Frogmore House is a Grade I listed building (vs. Frogmore cottage which is Grade II) which means they'd have less freedom to revamp the interior. Right now Frogmore House is practically a museum, which is not preferable for a young family.
 
While Frogmore Cottage in 1801 was built as a gardener's cottage, it soon would be used by the daughters of king George III. and queen Charlotte to entertain their friends. After that it was partly let to notable tenants (eg to the parents of writer Henry James, philosopher William James and diarist Alice James) while the Duchess of Kent resided in Frogmore House. Later it was used by the kings as grace & favour home, while eg King Georg V. and Queen Mary enjoyed private weekends at the main house. After the RUssian revolution Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia lived there with some of her children and grandchildren, she and queen Mary were close friends. After the abdication of Edward VIII. king George VI. asked Xenia to move to Wilderness House at Hampton Court because, as the Grand Duchess said in an interview, that "the gardens should be used in the future only by the king and his closest family." Frogmore Cottage was used as storage place for furniture and other belongings of the now Duke of Windsor from his private home at Fort Belvedere till the duke finally settled in Paris in 1952. I guess after that the house was converted into the staff accomodation, so that the gardens were still reserved for the private use of the Royal family only. The 1950s were not a time where lots of money were invested in restoring historic houses, so I guess that sometimes in the 70s, 80s or along with the main house in the 1990s the cottages (there is a studio flat next to the main house) was modernized. But I couldn't find out anything about that, the house was no longer of interest to journalists and writers when the Royals no longer lived there.
 
I think they’ve gone so far in the direction of making Frogmore House a quasi-museum space that there’s no turning back. Queen Mary our and out called it the “family souvenir museum” and the fact that they’ve basically recreated part of the yacht Britannia in one room and restored another to be exactly as it was kept by Queen Victoria’s mother seems telling that its status as a museum of the family’s private history has been cemented (as opposed to the public areas of Buckingham and Windsor, which in a way function to memorialize the history of the family’s public side).

In fact, it sounds as if Frogmore House, in that capacity as “family museum,” would have been an excellent place for Harry to bring Meghan not just as a place to get away from prying eyes for a romantic walk, but also introduce her to the family’s history and private customs. Maybe that’s part of why they feel so attached to it.
 
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Mirabel said:
Yes, wouldn't it have been simpler to gift the Sussexes Frogmore House, given the revamping needed for Frogmore Cottage?

I know Frogmore House is used for events, but I still think it would be easier to turn it into a private residence, and it is much more attractive than Frogmore Cottage, imo.


Also- if Harry and Meghan don't wish to occupy the rooms at Kensington Palace, who will live there?
Staff? Or will Eugenie get moved to a bigger apartment when she becomes pregnant?
Click to expand...
Frogmore House is a far grander and bigger house than the Cottage allocated to Harry, and perhaps, higher in status than befits his and Meghan's position in the firm.
 
alvinking said:
Well I for one see problems in the near future. I am not convinced that Harry is keen on having his kids attend St George's School in Windsor, maybe Eton later on in life, but generally parents want their children to follow in their footsteps. Maybe not Jane Mynors' nursery school if it still exists, but certainly Wetherby School and Ludgrove School. Though Ludgrove is a boarding school for older boys in Berkshire so close enough, commuting to Wetherby everyday for young kids is not feasible at all.
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Well, it's only a problem if you assume Harry wants his child to attend the same school as he did. I have no reason at all to think that either Meghan or Harry badly wants their child to attend their former primary school. If that was the priority they would have moved either to LA or remained in London.

Even William and Catherine who live in London did not send their children to the school either one attended, so I truly don't see the problem.
 
wyevale said:
I'm 'bound to say' -spoken like someone with NO respect or sensitivity to what came before an individuals TEMPORARY tenure of a historic building.

If they muck it up I GUARANTEE The Duchess will be blamed...
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I offer due deference to your views. This is a 1640 historical structure and will hopefully endure a long time.

It's current state, with actual pipes running down the outside, the inside reportedly cut up for functional housing purposes or work space - along with it's centuries of age seems to make it a rather overwhelming task to determine exactly what exactly came before.

I doubt it'll will be turned into an eyesore. Both M&H seem to have good sense and taste. Prince Harry and his family have the best possible understanding of what historical aspects to revive, as well as an eye for the underlying character of the building. It hardly seems it would be ruined rather than improved.

I'm in agreement with others who've commented M&H aren't likely to have made this choice if they didn't find style and potential of the cottage a good fit.
 
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muriel said:
Frogmore House is a far grander and bigger house than the Cottage allocated to Harry, and perhaps, higher in status than befits his and Meghan's position in the firm.
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Most museums are pretty grand but I wouldn't want to live in one.

H & M would be very limited in what they could change and certain rooms seem to be decorated for historical purposes so they couldn't even redecorate.
 
If Dumfries house renovations were completed in 5 months (compared to the 3+ years expected), I am pretty sure the Sussexes will move in the announced timeframe. Prince Charles will see to it.

I am quite confused by some people who say that as a FT royal the Sussexes should have stayed in London. To me it was pretty much expected they would not stay at KP and would only keep offices there, just like Charles' siblings... There is so much noise around them, must be quite a tough situation. I am sure the Duchess will be glad to stay out of view during her maternity leave!
 
Mirabel said:
Yes, wouldn't it have been simpler to gift the Sussexes Frogmore House, given the revamping needed for Frogmore Cottage?

I know Frogmore House is used for events, but I still think it would be easier to turn it into a private residence, and it is much more attractive than Frogmore Cottage, imo.


Also- if Harry and Meghan don't wish to occupy the rooms at Kensington Palace, who will live there?
Staff? Or will Eugenie get moved to a bigger apartment when she becomes pregnant?
Click to expand...


As it was said before, Frogmore House would be much more... difficult to bring to a condition fit for a family home.



Not sure what about Nottingham Cottage, though I think they will keep it as their London "base" of some sort. As to Eugenie, I do believe the Ivy Cottage is supposed to be bigger than Nott Cott, so it would not be an improvement in her case.
 
Higher iin status?

muriel said:
Frogmore House is a far grander and bigger house than the Cottage allocated to Harry, and perhaps, higher in status than befits his and Meghan's position in the firm.
Click to expand...

Who do you feel has adequate status for Frogmore House as a personal residence?
 
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Cathy-PA USA said:
Who do you feel has adequate status for Frogmore House as a personal residence?
Click to expand...

The idea that anyone would be given Frogmore House as a home now is laughable. It’s one thing to say that a building used as relatively interchangeable offices or staff accommodations be converted back into a residence, but FH seems to have a quite special use to the royal family as it is now. The Queen and Prince Phillip essentially recreated one of their favorite spaces, the royal yacht, in a room there. They’re not going to let anyone else move in and redecorate that. And, quite frankly, that they that suggests to me that they probably still spend time there themselves, in one form or another. Nobody lives in FH, but it is essentially occupied and off the market.
 
Remove direct photo and add link

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.hel...ry-meghan-markle-frogmore-cottage/?viewas=amp

Great exclusive by hello an interview with former royal chef Darren McGrady about Frogmore Cottage. He lived next door to FC at Frogmore Stables while working the Queen. He mentioned on Twitter the junior chefs lived in Frogmore Cottage.

He describes the area around the cottage and it sounds idyllic.

Aerial map

Interestingly the cottage is circled and shown to be the building near Royal Mausoleum. I think up thread we had discussed frogmore cottage as the building with the curved drive way in front that's shown just up the road from the circled building.

All the pictures of the front of frogmore cottage I've seen so far have the curved driveway, so those might not actually be a picture of frogmore cottage.
 
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Fros said:
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.hel...ry-meghan-markle-frogmore-cottage/?viewas=amp

Great exclusive by hello an interview with former royal chef Darren McGrady about Frogmore Cottage. He lived next door to FC at Frogmore Stables while working the Queen. He mentioned on Twitter the junior chefs lived in Frogmore Cottage.

He describes the area around the cottage and it sounds idyllic.

Aerial map

Interestingly the cottage is circled and shown to be the building near Royal Mausoleum. I think up thread we had discussed frogmore cottage as the building with the curved drive way in front that's shown just up the road from the circled building.

All the pictures of the front of frogmore cottage I've seen so far have the curved driveway, so those might not actually be a picture of frogmore cottage.
Click to expand...

In the interview McGrady says that the Sussexes would be able to look directly across the road to the Cricket Club, which is up at the top across from the building that we have been labelling as Frogmore Cottage--the one with the curved driveway. I'm wondering if the circled building is the stables where he supposedly lived. Although it would be odd to have stables close to the Mausoleum, so who knows?

Edited to add: After taking a close look at the circled area on the satellite map, it appears to be a cluster of smaller buildings. There's nothing there even close to the size of the substantial house in the northwest quadrant that we have been assuming is Frogmore Cottage, so I am thinking that the initial identification of that larger building, with the curved drive is indeed Frogmore Cottage, and the circled area is the stables with outbuildings. It doesn't look like a particularly attractive area (the supposed stable area) and it doesn't look like there's any building large enough to accommodate a royal prince, his wife, and a growing family in any kind of style or luxury. That's my best guess, anyway. Interesting to see what others think.
 
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I think Frogmore is kept as a family museum of sorts and that is why it wasn't offered to Harry and Meghan, I don't think it will be used as a residence by anyone, especially not while HM and Philip are alive. Personally I also think the RF use Frogmore gardens a lot especially with Windsor being so open and public at times and with only a quite formal, small by royal standards, garden by the private apartments.
Also, it is a very very large house and I don't think thats H&M's style, they want a family home not a royal country mansion.
 
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If the Sussexes vacate Not Cott, they will only have the one residence, which isn't what any of us expected!
 
Has the palace announced that Harry and Meghan are to live in Frogmore Cottage, or is this just a made up story by Emily Andrews of The Sun? And all the other media have jumped onto this story as being true.
First of all they were to have apartment one at KP.
Then it was Adelaide Cottage at Windsor.
Now it is Frogmore Cottage. Are we being played for fools here, or has this story been corroborated by The Palace.
 
Tarlita said:
Has the palace announced that Harry and Meghan are to live in Frogmore Cottage, or is this just a made up story by Emily Andrews of The Sun? And all the other media have jumped onto this story as being true.
First of all they were to have apartment one at KP.
Then it was Adelaide Cottage at Windsor.
Now it is Frogmore Cottage. Are we being played for fools here, or has this story been corroborated by The Palace.
Click to expand...

Yes KP made the official announcement that they are moving into Frogmore Cottage.



LaRae
 
Yes, Marlene Koenig, whose site it is, is an author on the royals and a great researcher. I think she was a poster here at one time.
 
O-H Anglophile said:
Most museums are pretty grand but I wouldn't want to live in one.

H & M would be very limited in what they could change and certain rooms seem to be decorated for historical purposes so they couldn't even redecorate.
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The King of Sweden lives in Drottningholm, an Unesco world heritage site. The King of the Netherlands is on the verge to move to a palace constructed by the parents of William III and Mary. Centuries old patrimonium of great beauty. We can be sure that both royals will enjoy modern, comfortable and luxurious apartments inside these monuments hors categorie.

We can say the same about all these British aristocrat families living in their grand ancestral estates. So I do not agree with your assessment as if living in Frogmore House would be like living in a museum. As long as all renovations are done with respect for the monumental status of a property, a lot is possible. Note that also the cottage has a monumental status and also in there the couple can not lay solar panels on the rooftop, to say something, without required permission.
 
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Thank you Pranter and Bertie.
I haven't been home much and when I did get the chance to look at this site there was a lot of discussion and yet I never came across a definate declaration that it was official. It is a sad state of affairs that these days we can no longer trust anything the media says without official confirmation.

I hope they do justice with the renovations to accommodate a modern couple while keeping the integrity of whatever historic parts are left over after so many years of change and additions.
 
Tarlita said:
Thank you Pranter and Bertie.
I haven't been home much and when I did get the chance to look at this site there was a lot of discussion and yet I never came across a definate declaration that it was official. It is a sad state of affairs that these days we can no longer trust anything the media says without official confirmation.

I hope they do justice with the renovations to accommodate a modern couple while keeping the integrity of whatever historic parts are left over after so many years of change and additions.
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Good point. The most official thing I could find was Richard Palmer stating that Kensington Palace has confirmed the move on his Twitter profile though I checked KP's Twitter and there's been no post about the move from them.
 
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