Inside Prince William and Kate Middleton's cosy family home once described as 'poky icebox'

A quaint four-bedroom cottage nestled successful the Home Counties is wherever you'll find the Prince and Princess of Wales, who've chosen Adelaide Cottage arsenic their superior digs — an unexpected location for a aboriginal king and his family. Tucked distant connected the expansive 655-acre Windsor Home Park and simply a stone's throw, oregon a 10-minute stroll, from the majestic Windsor Castle, this low-key residence has been William and Kate's stronghold since they bid adieu to their expansive 1A Kensington Palace pad successful 2022.

With 3 kids successful tow — Prince George, aged 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6 — the mates recovered this comparatively unostentatious retreat by Royal measures an perfect spot to nurture a young family, reports OK!. Their snug refuge has so deed the mark: "They are very, precise blessed there. Being capable to unrecorded successful the mediate of Windsor Home Park, wherever they're not overlooked and tin travel and spell successful implicit privacy, makes the downsize from Kensington Palace worthy it connected each level," shares Katie Nicholl, esteemed Royal author. "There's not a immense magnitude of space, but Adelaide Cottage ticks each the close boxes."

William and Kate reportedly relocated with the imaginativeness of providing the small royals a shadiness much normalcy, shielded from the gazes of immoderate 400,000 yearly visitors astatine Kensington Palace. An added bonus was the proximity to William's grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who regrettably passed conscionable weeks pursuing their move. Despite boasting lone 4 bedrooms compared to the 7 successful Prince Andrew's adjacent Royal Lodge, the cottage is rather spacious for the household seeing arsenic they don't employment live-in staff, opting alternatively for aides who commute daily. "I deliberation they amazed a batch of radical erstwhile they moved there," Royal adept Duncan Larcombe commented.

"There are plentifulness of different places they could person moved to, but Adelaide Cottage fits with their tendency arsenic parents to beryllium a mean family, wherever determination aren't servants and they don't person 30 rooms. William would overmuch alternatively person his kids astir him, successful the rooms adjacent doorway to wherever he's sleeping." The quaint home, recognisable by its airy pinkish walls, is nestled amongst mature trees and boasts fantabulous privacy, shielded by perfectly kept hedges which encircle the well-groomed gardens. This year, it has been a peaceful haven for Kate during her crab treatment.

"Kate's been capable to spell retired for walks and bask the caller air, alternatively than beryllium cooped up successful immoderate draughty aged palace successful London," Larcombe reveals. "She's blessed there, with her household astir her." A saccharine caller cottage gem connected the marketplace is boasting much than conscionable charm; it's a specified 15-minute car thrust to Lambrook, wherever the kiddos spell to school, and sits cozily nether an hr from the Middleton fam basal implicit successful Bucklebury, Berkshire. Duncan chimed successful with, "The proximity to the schoolhouse and the proximity to Kate's parents makes it perfectly ideal," adding that "The kids walk a batch of clip with their grandparents, and when William and Kate are some working, the Middletons tin measurement in. That's a immense vantage for immoderate young family."

This charming home, built backmost successful 1831, celebrates its namesake Queen Adelaide, arsenic she loved utilizing it for her summertime retreats. It's crafted successful the quaint 'cottage orné' benignant (that's fancy French for 'decorated cottage'), featuring eye-catching architecture similar nifty duplicate chimneys perched atop stepped bases close astatine the southbound threshold, not to notation a snazzy porte-cochère to duck retired of raindrops. And don't hide astir the attention-grabbing veranda circular the eastbound wing.

Last October, not agelong aft moving in, Kate went nationalist with a cosy sneak peek of the wrong of Adelaide Cottage to outcry astir Addiction Awareness Week. The video snippet, which saw immoderate of it filmed successful their surviving room, paraded a fuss-free yet chic pick sofa spruced up with pink, white, and reddish cushions, positive immoderate beauteous framed snaps of the household and neat houseplants jazzing up the backdrop. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, are believed to person filmed their congratulatory video connection to Team GB pursuing the Paris 2024 Olympics astatine their residence, acceptable against a backdrop of beauteous roses and lush greenery successful the garden. Initially, it was thought that the mates would determination into the adjacent Royal Lodge, which has been location to Prince Andrew for the past 2 decades.

The expansive mansion, boasting astir 30 rooms, is importantly larger than Adelaide Cottage and reportedly costs £400,000 annually to maintain. However, earlier this year, rumours circulated that the Duke, whose ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, resides successful a abstracted helping of the lodge, had declined to relocate to Frogmore Cottage, antecedently inhabited by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Regardless, Prince William and Kate look contented with Adelaide Cottage, a spot favoured by elder royals including Queen Victoria, who often enjoyed meal oregon day beverage determination during her reign. Her cherished King Charles spaniel, Dash, is buried wrong the grounds, commemorated by a peculiar plaque.

Prior to the Duke and Duchess's occupancy, the spot was location to Simon Rhodes, lad of Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, Margaret Rhodes, and Sir Hugh Roberts, erstwhile manager of the Royal Collection. The astir infamous and contentious fig to person resided determination was Princess Margaret's paramour, Royal Air Force Group Captain Peter Townsend. He shared the location with his wife, Rosemary, and their offspring successful the 1940s. The matrimony ended successful divorcement by 1952, and soon after, Townsend popped the question to a youthful Princess Margaret, aged conscionable 22. However, owed to the antiquated 1772 Royal Marriages Act, the Queen denied her sister the close to wed Townsend, arsenic helium was a divorced man.

Townsend, who served arsenic an equerry to King George VI, was little than impressed with his grace and favour home, erstwhile dubbing Adelaide Cottage an "icebox" connected relationship of its scant 2 radiators. To marque matters worse, the electricity, which was siphoned disconnected from Windsor Castle, was notoriously feeble. One professional went truthful acold arsenic to picture the interior, with its Victorian wallpaper and bulky furniture, arsenic "pokey and unattractive".

Fortune smiled upon William and Kate, however, arsenic the Grade II-listed abode received a broad makeover successful 2015. This meant that the Duke and Duchess didn't request to undertake immoderate important redecorations earlier settling in. "It's cosy, it's not excessively immense and it feels similar home," Katie notes. "It's cleanable for raising a young household – and raising them the mode Kate and William do, with a motion to their royal status, but a acold greater motion to them being brought up successful arsenic mean and arsenic mean a mode arsenic possible."

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