The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are thought to be eyeing up a move to Adelaide Cottage, a property ten minutes’ walk from the Queen’s new official residence, Windsor Castle.
In March this year, the Queen made the historic castle, founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, her permanent home and official residence. In the past, she tended to use Windsor Castle only as a weekend home and her residence during Easter and Royal Ascot week, with Buckingham Palace being her official home.
The monarch appears to have started a trend. Prince William and Kate Middleton are now said to be keen to relocate to Windsor, along with their three children: George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and Louis, four.
According to the Daily Mail royal correspondent Rebecca English, the Cambridges have been planning a move to Berkshire since 2021 and “have enrolled Prince George in a new school there, where he is expected to be joined this September by his siblings”.
Along with being near the Queen, Adelaide Cottage is also closer to Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who have lived for a decade in Bucklebury Manor, a seven-bedroom Grade II-listed Georgian property which is also in Berkshire.
Built in 1831 as a retreat for William IV’s wife, Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the cottage is the Cambridges’ “best and only option”, a royal insider revealed to The Sun’s royal correspondent Matt Wilkinson. The property is thought to have been refurbished as recently as 2015, with William and Kate keen to move in as early as this summer.
‘Grace and favour’ residence
Over the years, Adelaide Cottage has been used as a “grace and favour” residence for royal friends including Peter Townsend, the Battle of Britain pilot and equerry to King George VI who became the divorced lover of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, between 1944 and 1952.
The property most recently hosted Simon Rhodes, son of the Queen’s cousin and best friend Margaret Rhodes, who died in 2016, said English in the Daily Mail. It is thought to boast “original features including a marble Graeco-Egyptian fireplace and a principal bedroom with a coved ceiling featuring gilded dolphins”.
Along with being used for royal friends, the cottage was famously favoured by Queen Victoria, “who would often have tea or breakfast in this quaint location”, said Women and Home magazine.
Rumoured competition
Sources confirmed to the Mail that Princess Eugenie had been hoping to secure the home for her family – husband Jack Brooksbank and their baby son August, who turned one in February – when they eventually move out of Frogmore Cottage.
But “there is no doubt that if push comes to shove, the Cambridges and their children – all direct heirs to the throne – would get first refusal”, said English.
William and Kate are also thought to have considered Frogmore House as their new home, but decided it would be too expensive to renovate and adapt to comfortably fit their family of five. Fort Belvedere, home to the family of Canadian billionaire Galen Weston, was also on the Cambridges’ list of potential new homes, sources suggest.
