General Discussion about Royal Residences 2: Sep 2022 -

[PrincessofEurope]

And also makes me think of the future of St James's Palace?

I could see the use remaining as per current time - offices and living area for minor royals as required. Maybe charlotte and Louis will have a small base here

 

[muriel]

And also makes me think of the future of St James's Palace?

St James' is the "senior" Palace, it is going no where. It houses many offices, and is used for events not held at BP.

 

[muriel]

My take on the future residences of King William (when the times comes)


KP - they will use their Apartment here for when they are required to be in London.
I honestly think they made an error here they married in having a London residence as big as KP apartment and the expense to refurb it. They are clearly an outdoor family who thrive in the countryside and London living was not for them

I don't think they made a mistake with KP, they need to have a London base. You can see King William continue to reside at KP in London, and use BP as the office. This will also allow BP to be open a lot more to the public.

Windsor & Adelaide Cottage - I see the family containing to live in Adelaide Cottage for many many years. They thrive on this quiet lifestyle and paired back from how Charles and the late Queen ran the households. I see them using Windsor as they do now for engagements etc but I do not see them living in the apartments as the Castle itself is busy and a tourist attraction. AC offers greater privacy.

I think they will carve our a comfortable private apartment at Windsor Castle, which will serve as their "main" home. I do not know if this will be a materially different space to the private apartment of QE2 or KC3 at Windsor.

I think they will give us Adelaide Cottage. It will have served its purpose of providing a "normal" home for the children in their formative years growing up.

 

[An Ard Ri]

St James' is the "senior" Palace, it is going no where. It houses many offices, and is used for events not held at BP.

Sorry I was referring to its future as a royal residence, not as a working Palace.

 

[tommy100]

I think if they are going to use Windsor as their residence they'll wait until the children are all adult (or at least once all the children are old enough to be at boarding school if they go to one which expects pretty much full time boarding)

Adelaide Cottage works better for a family but the late Queen and Philip got along with Windsor as their weekend home. As I understand it they go on okay with the State Apartments being open when the Castle was acting as royal residence so long as the Semi State apartment were closed (those rooms closest to the private apartments). whilst this arrangement might be hard for children to follow for W&C I think it would be okay.

St James' Palace will probably be what it always has been - a collection of apartments and offices used by various officials and / or some members of the RF. Maybe Louis & Charlotte will have offices there even if they have residences at Kensington Palace (or indeed may well have apartments there one day).

 

[muriel]

I think if they are going to use Windsor as their residence they'll wait until the children are all adult (or at least once all the children are old enough to be at boarding school if they go to one which expects pretty much full time boarding)

Adelaide Cottage works better for a family but the late Queen and Philip got along with Windsor as their weekend home. As I understand it they go on okay with the State Apartments being open when the Castle was acting as royal residence so long as the Semi State apartment were closed (those rooms closest to the private apartments). whilst this arrangement might be hard for children to follow for W&C I think it would be okay.

St James' Palace will probably be what it always has been - a collection of apartments and offices used by various officials and / or some members of the RF. Maybe Louis & Charlotte will have offices there even if they have residences at Kensington Palace (or indeed may well have apartments there one day).

Re Windsor, I think a lot will depend on when William becomes King. I suspect George & Charlotte will head to boarding school in September 2026, Louis not until 2031.

 

[PrincessofEurope]

I don't think they made a mistake with KP, they need to have a London base. You can see King William continue to reside at KP in London, and use BP as the office. This will also allow BP to be open a lot more to the public.


I think they will carve our a comfortable private apartment at Windsor Castle, which will serve as their "main" home. I do not know if this will be a materially different space to the private apartment of QE2 or KC3 at Windsor.

I think they will give us Adelaide Cottage. It will have served its purpose of providing a "normal" home for the children in their formative years growing up.

The error I feel was the size of the apartment at KP and the cost that this became to modernise it for living and since then they have not spent a great amount of time using it. Granted they needed a London base but smaller one (rooms in BP like the way Anne and Edward use or even St James' or a smaller KP apartment)

It would be interesting to have analysis on how often they use each of the royal residences and time spent in each. Maybe going forward this can be assessed by the RF and use the information to see how to better use the palaces whether that be opening them more to the public etc

 

[muriel]

The error I feel was the size of the apartment at KP and the cost that this became to modernise it for living and since then they have not spent a great amount of time using it. Granted they needed a London base but smaller one (rooms in BP like the way Anne and Edward use or even St James' or a smaller KP apartment)

It would be interesting to have analysis on how often they use each of the royal residences and time spent in each. Maybe going forward this can be assessed by the RF and use the information to see how to better use the palaces whether that be opening them more to the public etc

They moved into KP shortly after George was born in 2013. For about 2 years from mid-2015 to mid 2017, they largely lived at Anmer, as William was working for the Air Ambulance service. By mid-2017, they had largely moved back to London, where they remained till September 2022. So for 7 of the 9 years between 2013 and 2019, KP was their main home. We do not know how much it is used at the moment.

As regards the size of KP 1A, my sense is that it will remain their London home for many years. There is a reasonable chance they may continue to live at KP even after William is King. So I have no issues with the size of the apartment.

 

[tommy100]

I wonder if as well as William’s childhood experience of KP, that Palace was chosen as for a time (around the Golden Jubilee in 2022) it was a drag on the RF in so much as committees of MPs were questioning the public funding going towards it, why some royals lived there for minimal “peppercorn” rents etc. There was even talk (even if silly
talk) of it being used as a potential new US Embassy and saving taxpayer cash being spent on it. By William and Catherine making it their home all of that talk pretty much came to an end. So whilst William may well have expressed a preference, I wonder if the late Queen and her advisors were a little more calculated in allowing it to happen.