Latest Press Release
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's permanent London Residence
6th November 2011
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to make Kensington Palace their permanent London residence from mid- to late-2013. The Duke and Duchess will occupy an apartment last lived in by the late Princess Margaret. The Duke and Duchess are currently using another, smaller property at Kensington Palace as a temporary London residence.
The apartment into which they are moving is currently managed by the charity Historic Royal Palaces and is used for a number of purposes, including offices, classrooms and storage. A public exhibition in part of the apartment organised by Historic Royal Palaces is due to end in September 2012, at which point the apartment will be handed back to the Royal Household for structural works. The extent of the work needed to turn the apartment back into a home is not yet known, but it is expected that the apartment will not be ready for occupation until at least the middle of 2013.
It is anticipated that Prince Harry will move into the residence currently occupied by The Duke and Duchess at Kensington Palace once they vacate it to move to their new apartment.
The Household Office of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and HRH Prince Henry of Wales will move from its current offices at St. James’s Palace to offices at Kensington Palace in mid-2012. The move will enable office staff to be closer to The Duke and Duchess and, eventually, Prince Harry if he also moves to Kensington Palace. The Household will continue to share certain functions with the Household of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.
The planned moves have been approved by The Queen and The Prince of Wales.
Notes to Editors
· Any building costs associated with turning the apartment back into living accommodation will fall to existing Grant-in-Aid budgets provided to the Royal Household for Royal residences for 2011-12 and 2012-13, and to the Sovereign Support Grant (which will replace the Grant-in-Aid) from 2013. The cost of interior decorating and furnishing beyond re-plastering and basic painting or wall-covering falls to the Royal Family privately.
· Currently, the apartment is uninhabitable by anyone without structural works being carried out. The extent of the building work required to make the apartment inhabitable is not yet known, but early indications suggest that large quantities of asbestos will have to be removed, as well as work on the heating and hot water systems and electrical wiring. The last major works in the apartment took place around the time that Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon moved into the apartment following their marriage in 1960.
· Since Princess Margaret’s death, the apartment has not been used as a home and has been occupied by Historic Royal Palaces for a range of purposes.
· The Royal Household and Historic Royal Palaces have worked together to facilitate the planned changes at Kensington Palace. Historic Royal Palaces, which manages Kensington Palace (and other sites) as visitor and educational attractions, have been offered new accommodation at Kensington Palace for their offices, storage and other needs.
· Kensington Palace was the primary London Residence of The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry from their births until 1998. The Palace has been a Royal residence since 1689, when King William III and Queen Mary II purchased Nottingham House, which was subsequently re-modelled by Christopher Wren into Kensington Palace.