A home fit for a future king... or two
After a £1m refit, the builders are finally moving out of Apartment 1A Kensington Palace and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with baby George and their dog Lupo, will soon move in. As the most desirable of all the private Royal residences at ‘KP’, it wasn’t any wonder that when she fi rst viewed it, the Duchess set her heart on taking over what, until her death 11 years ago, had been the home of Princess Margaret.
It was as a frequent visitor over many years, that I knew the house well, though confl icting news reports on its size never cease to amaze. One broadsheet recently claimed it had 57 rooms, while an American blog reckoned it had ‘19 rooms for staff ’. Had the latter been the case, Princess Margaret would have lived, dined, slept and entertained in only one room. For while it occupies much of the south wing, looking across Kensington Gardens towards Hyde Park Gate the four-storey house – ‘apartment’ is a misnomer – had a total of 20 rooms when occupied by Princess Margaret, excluding the kitchen, loos, bathrooms (eight), pantries, storeroom and laundry. She had a dining room, a drawing room, a library, a garden room and 12 bedrooms, six on the first floor and six, intended, though rarely used, as staff accommodation, on the floor above. Making up the 20 were the staff common room, an office, Princess Margaret’s wardrobe room, and a dressing room.
When Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon lived there, Apartment 1A was one of the most chic and trendy addresses in London; a mecca for the artistic of every discipline and every persuasion. Once described as the exemplar of ‘Style Anglaise’, the comfortable feel of an English country house was evident the moment you stepped into the neoclassical entrance hall, with its grey and white slate and marble paved fl oor, white walls, decorative alcoves and broken-pedimented door frames. Here, from its spotlit perch opposite the front door, Annigoni’s iconic portrait of Princess Margaret kept a watchful eye on the comings and goings.
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon with Lord Linley and Lady Sarah
From the hall, a door opened into the Drawing Room which, like all the rooms on this side of the house, overlooked the tranquil walled garden, with its sloping lawn, rhododendron and azalea bushes, and summer profusion of lupins, foxgloves, peonies, poppies and roses. Spacious and classically furnished, its walls drag-painted kingfi sher blue, the room was naturally lit by a series of tall sash windows. Of an evening, it seemed to glow in the light of table lamps. Here, during the Swinging Sixties, when Margaret and Tony were the world’s most glamorous Royal couple, it was where their A-list guests partied.
Among them was Frank Sinatra, who knew he would have to sing for his supper. ‘Please brush up on the Out Of This World song,’ the princess once asked Ol’ Blue Eyes ahead of one visit, and he duly obliged. Elizabeth Taylor was another guest, who on one occasion when she was appearing in the West End, came for dinner and sat down at a table heavily laden with gold and silver. It was a deliberate, though tongue-in-cheek tease, telling its star guest that in its ‘vulgarity’, Princess Margaret was more than a match for Hollywood ostentation.
But it was with closer friends that the princess, who loved all kinds of music, from country and western to Leider singing, would gather round the parlour grand piano and sing the night away. Indeed, on one of my last visits over tea and chocolate brownies, we got round to talking ‘songs’ and ended up dissecting the lyrics of the 1960s hit Winchester Cathedral.
A few years after she and Lord Snowdon were divorced, Princess Margaret transformed what had been Tony’s starkly modern study next door to the Drawing Room, into a countryhouse library. In fact, I was there with a mutual friend one day when a couple of chippies were installing the tall white bookcases. When the princess asked one of them if he would mind doing something or other, he replied ‘If you want it done, do it yourself.’
‘What do you think of that?’ she asked in amazement.
Unusually for a Royal household at that time, the first-fl oor nursery suite, made up of a sitting room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchenette, was located not far from the principal bedrooms Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon occupied. And even if William and Catherine have other ideas for the former nursery, they are certain to make full use of what used to be the princess’s almond- green bedroom, off which a dressing room led to a large wardrobe room, while another door opened into a stunning Strawberry Hill gothicstyle bathroom, originally painted bright coral, but latterly a rich shade of raspberry, with pointed arched doors, mirrored dressing table and pilastered bath recess.
At one time, the princess replaced the bath with a Jacuzzi. Once installed, Princess Diana, whose own apartments – William’s childhood home – were nearby, was invited to come and admire. By the time Diana left, she too had decided she just might have one of her own.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with baby George and Lupo
As Princess Margaret, who lived at Apartment 1A for 40 years, well knew and as William and Catherine have already discovered, Kensington Palace could not be more ideally suited to the demands of official as well as private life. Secure and quiet, it is also hugely atmospheric, especially at night when the crown-topped gas lamps are lit, spilling their otherworldly light on to the cobblestones and the ghosts – they have been seen as well as heard – come out to play.
Yet, no matter how the Duke and Duchess have chosen to configure and refurbish Apartment 1A, there is absolutely no doubt they will introduce the 21st-century to a house that welcomed its first Royal occupant, George III’s son Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, back in 1805.
Princess Margaret: A Life Of Contrasts by Christopher Warwick (Kindle edition), is published by Andre Deutsch, priced £7.12
It was as a frequent visitor over many years, that I knew the house well, though confl icting news reports on its size never cease to amaze. One broadsheet recently claimed it had 57 rooms, while an American blog reckoned it had ‘19 rooms for staff ’. Had the latter been the case, Princess Margaret would have lived, dined, slept and entertained in only one room. For while it occupies much of the south wing, looking across Kensington Gardens towards Hyde Park Gate the four-storey house – ‘apartment’ is a misnomer – had a total of 20 rooms when occupied by Princess Margaret, excluding the kitchen, loos, bathrooms (eight), pantries, storeroom and laundry. She had a dining room, a drawing room, a library, a garden room and 12 bedrooms, six on the first floor and six, intended, though rarely used, as staff accommodation, on the floor above. Making up the 20 were the staff common room, an office, Princess Margaret’s wardrobe room, and a dressing room.
When Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon lived there, Apartment 1A was one of the most chic and trendy addresses in London; a mecca for the artistic of every discipline and every persuasion. Once described as the exemplar of ‘Style Anglaise’, the comfortable feel of an English country house was evident the moment you stepped into the neoclassical entrance hall, with its grey and white slate and marble paved fl oor, white walls, decorative alcoves and broken-pedimented door frames. Here, from its spotlit perch opposite the front door, Annigoni’s iconic portrait of Princess Margaret kept a watchful eye on the comings and goings.
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon with Lord Linley and Lady SarahFrom the hall, a door opened into the Drawing Room which, like all the rooms on this side of the house, overlooked the tranquil walled garden, with its sloping lawn, rhododendron and azalea bushes, and summer profusion of lupins, foxgloves, peonies, poppies and roses. Spacious and classically furnished, its walls drag-painted kingfi sher blue, the room was naturally lit by a series of tall sash windows. Of an evening, it seemed to glow in the light of table lamps. Here, during the Swinging Sixties, when Margaret and Tony were the world’s most glamorous Royal couple, it was where their A-list guests partied.
Among them was Frank Sinatra, who knew he would have to sing for his supper. ‘Please brush up on the Out Of This World song,’ the princess once asked Ol’ Blue Eyes ahead of one visit, and he duly obliged. Elizabeth Taylor was another guest, who on one occasion when she was appearing in the West End, came for dinner and sat down at a table heavily laden with gold and silver. It was a deliberate, though tongue-in-cheek tease, telling its star guest that in its ‘vulgarity’, Princess Margaret was more than a match for Hollywood ostentation.
But it was with closer friends that the princess, who loved all kinds of music, from country and western to Leider singing, would gather round the parlour grand piano and sing the night away. Indeed, on one of my last visits over tea and chocolate brownies, we got round to talking ‘songs’ and ended up dissecting the lyrics of the 1960s hit Winchester Cathedral.
A few years after she and Lord Snowdon were divorced, Princess Margaret transformed what had been Tony’s starkly modern study next door to the Drawing Room, into a countryhouse library. In fact, I was there with a mutual friend one day when a couple of chippies were installing the tall white bookcases. When the princess asked one of them if he would mind doing something or other, he replied ‘If you want it done, do it yourself.’
‘What do you think of that?’ she asked in amazement.
Unusually for a Royal household at that time, the first-fl oor nursery suite, made up of a sitting room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchenette, was located not far from the principal bedrooms Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon occupied. And even if William and Catherine have other ideas for the former nursery, they are certain to make full use of what used to be the princess’s almond- green bedroom, off which a dressing room led to a large wardrobe room, while another door opened into a stunning Strawberry Hill gothicstyle bathroom, originally painted bright coral, but latterly a rich shade of raspberry, with pointed arched doors, mirrored dressing table and pilastered bath recess.
At one time, the princess replaced the bath with a Jacuzzi. Once installed, Princess Diana, whose own apartments – William’s childhood home – were nearby, was invited to come and admire. By the time Diana left, she too had decided she just might have one of her own.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with baby George and LupoAs Princess Margaret, who lived at Apartment 1A for 40 years, well knew and as William and Catherine have already discovered, Kensington Palace could not be more ideally suited to the demands of official as well as private life. Secure and quiet, it is also hugely atmospheric, especially at night when the crown-topped gas lamps are lit, spilling their otherworldly light on to the cobblestones and the ghosts – they have been seen as well as heard – come out to play.
Yet, no matter how the Duke and Duchess have chosen to configure and refurbish Apartment 1A, there is absolutely no doubt they will introduce the 21st-century to a house that welcomed its first Royal occupant, George III’s son Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, back in 1805.
Princess Margaret: A Life Of Contrasts by Christopher Warwick (Kindle edition), is published by Andre Deutsch, priced £7.12