Continuing our Royal Residences series, this post takes a look inside the Royal Lodge in Windsor Park – currently home to The Duke of York, and formerly the childhood home of The Queen. From it’s lush acres of land and gardens to its plush interiors, here’s a exploration of the vast home known as “The Royal Lodge”:
Dating back to 1662, the property that is today known as ‘The Royal Lodge’ has had many names and many guises over the centuries. In the 17th century the property was a Queen Anne style brick lodge named the ‘Lower Lodge’ and was largely lived in by workers from the Windsor estate, from rangers to superintendents.
The house didn’t become a royal residence until 1812 when then prince regent George, The Prince of Wales (King George IV), moved into the property and had alterations made by the legendary architect John Nash. These alterations included pretty verandas, a thatched roof and other decorative additions that transformed the house into a Cottage Core Aesthetic dream, and was known as the ‘King’s Cottage’. It was during this time that the Royal Chapel of All Saints was built on the Royal Lodge estate – this was most recently the scene of Princess Beatrice’s wedding, and can be seen in the below image:
In the early 19th century King William IV had the pretty cottage demolished (with the exception of the elegant conservatory) and a new property built. The new building was a handsome stucco-fronted house set over three storeys, with additions and extensions added over the proceeding years. In the 1930s the 98 acre estate was granted to Prince Albert, The Duke of York (later King George VI) and his young family as a country retreat from their urban townhouse in London.
Further extensions were made to the property, now known as the Royal Lodge, these included the addition of wings to either side of the home, and the introduction of the delightful Y Bwthyn Bach (seen below); a thatched miniature cottage gifted to Princess Elizabeth (later The Queen), which still stands in the gardens of Royal Lodge today, as seen in the image below.
The large Grade-II property has remained largely unchanged since the 1930’s, and features a total of 30 rooms including 7 bedrooms over the top two floors, as well as the ‘formal room’; a spacious drawing room with intricate mouldings and millwork, a tall ceiling, large arched windows opening out onto the rear terrace, and still featuring the same large antique rug, tapestries and furnishings as it did when The Queen Mother resided at the lodge until her death at the residence in 2002. The following year Prince Andrew, The Duke of York was granted a lease on the estate, which has remained his and his family’s primary residence ever since.
When the current Duke of York moved into the lodge, he had a £7.5 million refurbishment carried out, bringing the estate up to code. It is believed the estate could now be worth £30 million if the property were to become available to the open market, as the estate not only features the sizeable main property, but also comes with the royal chapel, a gardener’s cottage, 6 lodge cottages and security accommodation, all sitting within 98 acres of lush Windsor land.
Located just 3 miles south of Windsor Castle, the Royal Lodge estate meets with the large statue of a saddled King George III at the head of the Great Walk, which leads straight down Windsor Great Park to the castle. In between are other royal residences such as Frogmore House, Frogmore Cottage and Adelaide Cottage. Other nearby royal residences include Fort Belvedere over 20 miles from Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace. See more by browsing the ‘royalty‘ tag.
images: google