A theory has long endured about Buckingham Palace. One which, thanks to a recent shift in the royal property portfolio, may finally be about to be put to bed. For nearly two centuries, the assumption has always been that the king or queen and their immediate family must live at
Buckingham Palace may become ‘Monarchy HQ’ as royals look to shift homes
Eleanor Steafel
Daily Telegraph UK·
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Buckingham Palace, the principal Royal residence, is currently undergoing an $844m refurbishment. Photo / SOPA Images, LightRocket via Getty Images
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They add that Prince William would take a “pragmatic” approach to Buckingham Palace in the future. What, then, will become of the least treasured of the royal residences?
Its cards, experts say, have long been marked. “I don’t think it was ever loved,” says Robert Lacey, a historian and royal biographer. “If you read what kings have said in their diaries, it was always seen as an office. I think, actually, as an office it has been very successful. As a ceremonial figurehead for the Royal family, as the place that visitors identify with, it’s been a great success.
“People forget that at the beginning of the [late] Queen’s reign, no one went into Buckingham Palace. The Queen did it so well by starting with the Queen’s gallery, which gave access to the royal collections. And now the fact that you can go on tours. It turns it from an impressive but perhaps empty facade into a meaningful exploration of the way in which constitutional monarchy works.”
As for the monarchs themselves, it is custom, not comfort, that has kept them in London. It’s what saw George V reside in the capital during World War I and George VI during World War II. It’s what led Winston Churchill to force Queen Elizabeth II to move her young family there from Clarence House when she ascended the throne at 26. And it is presumably why she remained there for almost her entire reign, right up until the pandemic, when at 93 she finally relocated to Windsor Castle, living away from London for the rest of her life.
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The palace was habitable from the early 1830s after an extensive remodelling (a smaller house had previously existed on the site), but the ruler at the time, William IV, never moved in, preferring Clarence House. Queen Victoria became the first monarch to live there in 1837. Then, the chimneys were said to smoke so much they had to let the fires die down, which meant the palace was often cold. Prince Albert eventually refurbished it, but upon his death in 1861, the Queen was so grief-stricken she withdrew from public life, leaving London to live in Windsor and Balmoral.
Nearly a century on, conditions at the palace were no more comfortable. As a child, Elizabeth II’s governess described the experience of staying at Buckingham Palace as being “like camping in a museum”. It is famously draughty, its living quarters lacking the opulence of the rest of the palace. Edward VIII complained about “the gloom of Buckingham Palace”, saying the family would “freeze up” as soon as they went inside.
When Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip moved back into the palace, the Queen is said to have smoothed things over with her husband, who had little affection for the place, by giving him the King’s rooms, says royal author Hugo Vickers.
“He had Edward VII’s library, which was the office where his archivist worked, then an enormous drawing room, and then a study and beyond that his bedroom; on the other side were the Queen’s rooms,” Vickers says.
“He had a fantastic drawing room which was filled with books, mainly about ornithology and religion. And rather awful furniture which had come from Britannia or something, slightly Ikea-ish. Rather practical for people sitting around having conferences. The Queen gave him her father’s rooms and she took the Queen Mother’s rooms.”
Unlike Clarence House, which is “a lovely house in the middle of London with a big garden”, the palace is “rather like living in an Edwardian hotel in Brighton”, says Vickers.
“There are these long corridors. And it’s very bleak in so many ways. The Queen didn’t want to go there but Churchill made her; she was much happier to stay at Clarence House.”
Privacy has long been a drawback, too. “The garden is overlooked by the Hilton and various other buildings,” says Vickers. “The king and queen in the past would have had much more privacy.”
When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2024, the King made a point of going in and out of Buckingham Palace in the state car via the main gate so that people could see him looking fine and well. When Prince Harry lost the right to an official residence in the UK, he was at one time offered the chance to stay in the palace when he was in London but declined, reasoning the very public entrance made him feel like a sitting duck.
Clarence House, meanwhile, is more discreet. The King has lived at the Regency property – once the home of his beloved grandmother – for many years. For the past two, he has conducted his duties from Clarence House and Highgrove, taking meetings at Buckingham Palace when necessary, arguably proving there is no need for the palace to be the monarch’s main residence.
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As for Prince William, insiders say the palace is already seen as “Monarchy HQ”, and the intention is for it to continue that way during his reign. He is said to be pragmatic about the distinction between family and work life.
When the Prince and Princess of Wales moved to Berkshire, the plan was to test how it worked for them as a family to base themselves in the country but still within easy distance of London. Now, with all three children said to be “thriving” at nearby Lambrook School – and after a particularly difficult period for them as a family, when you would imagine they must have found some respite in being out of London – you can hardly blame them for wanting to make Windsor their permanent home.
If home is Berkshire, then the palace is to be the office. In fact, some say it already is.
“The point is it is now a working office building,” says Lacey. “And people don’t live in their office, and so maybe the way ahead is for royal spokespeople to present more clearly its role. It still remains the headquarters, and it will never lose its ceremonial dimension.”
He suspects the time has come “to redefine the palace”. “There used to be a time when you could look at the balcony and see everybody waving on it and say who are those people? One of the changes is that now when you see them on the balcony they are all working royals, they are all in receipt of public money, and that’s all part of the same process.
“They are standing on the balcony of the official headquarters. The King does go to work there. The fact that he lives down the Mall in Clarence House where he has lived for many years and goes into the office every day, I don’t think that diminishes the significance of Buckingham Palace one jot.”
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The Forest Lodge move “shows the future king thinking ahead about his family”, says Lacey. “The question you might ask is, is Forest Lodge going to become the new Clarence House?” If Forest Lodge is to be his family base, Lacey suspects William may “come up to town during the week and use Buckingham Palace as his headquarters and maybe spend a few nights there in the week”.
What to do with the palace, then, once it emerges from its 10-year facelift? The renovations are to conclude in 2027, by which time the King will be 78, William 45.
There has long been speculation the palace could be turned into a museum, or at least get the same treatment that Balmoral has had, reducing the months when it operates as a private house and giving it over to the public for more of the year, with the added benefit of offsetting the costs of running it through ticket sales.
However successful the refurbishment is, the prospect of living fulltime at the palace clearly remains unpopular. The question is whether that really matters. When the King is in London, living a mere half a mile up the Mall, it surely makes little difference if he has laid his head at Clarence House or at Buckingham Palace. In fact, it’s a four-minute commute. If he were to live in the middle of Windsor Great Park, it would be more like 48km. Still, that’s only about 12 minutes if you avoid the M4 and take a helicopter.