As the scandal surrounding Britain’s Prince Andrew continues to make headlines internationally, many are asking whether or not the disgraced royal will be capable to proceed dwelling in Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion that has been his dwelling since 2003.
But how a lot do we know about the sprawling property in Windsor Great Park that’s dwelling to Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and the place their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, spent a lot of their teenage years?
Why does Andrew stay in Royal Lodge?
The late Queen Elizabeth II granted Andrew, the third of her 4 youngsters, the best to stay in the lodge, which is formally owned by the Crown Estate. The prince paid £1 million for the property again in 2003, and underneath the phrases of the 75-year lease, because of expire on June 15, 2078, he’s anticipated to pay for any refurbishment work and the upkeep of the encompassing grounds.
He was additionally required upfront to pay £7.5 million ($10 million) to cowl needed refurbishments that had been accomplished in 2005, in accordance with a National Audit Office report. According to the lease, signed on August 8, 2003, lease “if demanded” was solely required to be “one peppercorn” each year.
The property sits in an property of 40 hectares (99 acres) and includes a swimming pool, an aviary, six lodge cottages, a gardener’s cottage and lodging for police defending the royals to remain in.
It is located inside Windsor Great Park, near Windsor Castle, Frogmore Cottage (the place the Duke and Duchess of Sussex beforehand lived) and Forest Lodge, the Windsor residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
A home has stood on the location since not less than the 1660s, though it has undergone appreciable updates and renovations since then. Its first hyperlinks with the royal household got here in the early nineteenth century when George IV, then the prince regent, transformed the rustic-styled cottage right into a searching lodge after which personal retreat. By the mid-1820s it had change into often known as Royal Lodge.
After George died in 1830, a lot of the construction was pulled down by William IV and it was used as a “grace and favor” residence for many of the remainder of the century.
The Royal Chapel was added to the location in 1865, however, although located throughout the grounds of the lodge, it doesn’t come underneath the present lease.
The property was rebuilt in the course of the Nineteen Thirties round a room remaining from George IV’s unique cottage.
Prince Andrew’s late mom, Queen Elizabeth II, lived in the lodge as a toddler, shifting there along with her mother and father — then the Duke and Duchess of York — in 1932. The household remained at Royal Lodge till the duke and duchess had been topped 4 years later, following the abdication of Edward VIII.
Following her husband’s loss of life in 1952 and the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother used the Royal Lodge as her Windsor residence till her loss of life in 2002.
After his grandmother died, Prince Andrew approached the Crown Estate about buying the leasehold on the property. The property was not supplied to the broader market due to its delicate location in the center of Windsor Great Park and the necessity for safety, given its proximity to the Royal Chapel.
What modifications has Andrew made?
The renovation work that Andrew carried out on the household property included inside alterations to the tiled ceiling, exterior repainting, new tarmac for the gate entrance and lightweight fittings and cameras for outdoor the lodge, in accordance with a planning software lodged with the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead.
Earlier planning purposes present that the native authorities granted permission to construct a single-story property to accommodate law enforcement officials defending the location in 1990, and permission was given for the development of a conservatory in 2001.
Also in the grounds is Y Bwthyn Bach, which interprets from Welsh as “little cottage.” The miniature thatched cottage was given by the folks of Wales to the late Queen Elizabeth II on her sixth birthday and was the place she and her sister, Princess Margaret, performed as youngsters — as did their youngsters and grandchildren.
In a 2012 BBC documentary known as “The Diamond Queen,” Princess Beatrice mentioned she and her sister had been “lucky enough” to play there along with their cousins as youngsters.
She described it because the “most glamorous Wendy house ever” and mentioned that she spent about a yr overseeing its renovation. This, she mentioned, concerned new wiring, new curtains and utterly rethatching the cottage to present it a “bit of a spruce-up.”
Viewers bought to see the princess take host Andrew Marr contained in the miniature property, which was totally furnished and full with furnishings, crockery and glassware and a fridge from the Nineteen Thirties.
In 2018, Prince Andrew and his former spouse hosted the marriage celebrations for his or her youthful daughter, Eugenie, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, on the lodge following the official ceremony at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
In 2020, Eugenie’s sister, Beatrice, tied the knot on the property itself, marrying Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in a small ceremony in the chapel whereas Covid-19 restrictions had been in place.