Clarence House: inside Prince Charles and Camillas home

Table Of Content

• ‘It might be quite alarming’ – Queen jokes…
• The Queen’s Reading Room to launch literary podcast
• Clarence House has been home to several royals and their families.
• Prince & Patron
• Royal procession heads to Westminster Hall as Queen…
• The King and Queen’s Coronation outfits go on…
• King Charles makes royal appointments on St George’s…

Clarence House was built between 1825 and 1827 to the designs of John Nash for Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) and his wife Adelaide. With a pristine white facade, Nash created a bright, stuccoed mansion of classical proportions. But the final cost of £22,232 was more than double what he had originally estimated, the Royal Collection Trust reveal.

‘It might be quite alarming’ – Queen jokes…

Charles revived the position of the official harpist in 2000, and currently employs Anne Denholm for the job. This harp bears emblems of Wales, as harps are designed for their owners, using symbols and imagery fitting to the lives – in this case, the three feathers and leeks. The Queen Mother had this room created by removing a partition of two smaller rooms during her tenure at Clarence House, in 1960. Here, Prince Charles regularly greets guests, occasionally Heads of State and their families, and it is the main sitting room for guests, with large, worn, but comfortable sofas, and lovely views out to the garden.

The Queen’s Reading Room to launch literary podcast

As the name suggests, it offers beautiful views out onto the garden, and it is home to these impressive musical instruments, a grand piano and golden harp. As Kathryn points out, the ceiling is accented by striking bronze coving, which was added by TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. Above the fireplace is another portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Queen Mother's coat of arms combined the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with the arms of her father, the Earl of Strathmore.

Clarence House has been home to several royals and their families.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Since the 1940s alone, the grand stucco townhouse on The Mall has been the home of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen Mother and princes William and Harry. Lisa Joyner is the Senior Digital Writer at House Beautiful UK and Country Living UK, where she's busy writing about home and interiors, gardening, dog breeds, pets, health and wellbeing, countryside news, small space inspiration, and the hottest properties on the market.

The royal couple's residence has a fascinating history, and has been redecorated several times over. When tours operated, a regular guided tour cost £11.30 and included the garden plus the five rooms mentioned above. There was occasionally a more expensive (£35) Exclusive Guided Tour that only ran on select days and included a glass of champagne and also let you visit the Cornwall Room, which wasn’t part of the regular tour. Situated in the City of Westminster, Clarence House is part of a long road called The Mall, which leads to the monarch’s official London residence, Buckingham Palace. Clarence House is also close to another historical landmark, St James’ Palace.

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Clarence House is one of the less-visited of London’s palaces and royal residences and it is also one of its more authentic in the sense that it feels more like a family home than a venue for state banquets and official functions. Most years, the house opens its doors to visitors in August for tours of the ground floor, while Charles and Camilla spend the summer at their Scottish residence, Birkhall. However, in 2019, Clarence House remained closed throughout the summer for essential maintenance work and it is currently closed to visitors due to coronavirus. Queen Victoria had a large family and there were numerous close royal relations who needed housing and St. James’s Palace became the home of many of them.

The couple had the house refitted; they added the fireplace in the Lancaster Room, which a gift from the people of Lancashire, who had raised money for Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding, and the room was named after the county people. They chose the fireplace featuring grapes for their sitting room, which came from a house in Dublin, Ireland. Princess Augusta, William’s sister, occupied Clarence House after his death for the next three years, until her own death in 1840. William even stayed at the house when he became King, and he had the passage on the first floor, to connect his home with St James’s, installed. Now, as a married man and heir to the throne living in a small and poorly-planned apartment, he petitioned Parliament and his brother, George IV, for improvements to be made.

The residence can be visited by the public—both in-person and virtually.

"The major change has been in The Dining Room which has the unusual and striking bronze coving to the ceiling," Jones said. "The other thing that always strikes you when you are inside the house is how much the garden is present—many of the rooms look out into the garden and there is a sense of it almost like an extra room to the house." Until Charles's accession to the throne in September 2022, Clarence House held the offices for Camilla and Charles's Royal Household. Although they have multiple homes in Great Britain, and Buckingham Palace is now their official residence, Clarence House is the real home base—Camilla even hosted Christmas festivities there in December 2022. After their marriage in 1947, it became the residence of Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In 1953, after the death of her father King George VI (d. 6 February 1952), Princess Elizabeth acceded to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II and moved to Buckingham Palace.

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Before the then-Prince-of-Wales and Camilla moved in, the former had been home to the Queen Mother, who passed away in 2002 at age 101. Charles had the house updated to his tastes in 2002, finally moving in in 2003; while the style may have altered a little, almost all of his grandmother’s furniture has been accommodated in the house. The initial £10,000 ballooned to a final cost of £22,232, as older buildings were demolished and problems revealed, but also due to Nash’s numerous changes as the building progressed. Clarence House, named after its first occupant, was completed in 1827, incorporating a corner of St James’s. Today, the two are still linked by a corridor on the first floor, being useful for larger receptions and events.

To prepare the building for Charles, Clarence House underwent extensive refurbishment and redecoration. The renovation included new colour schemes, updated textiles, and several new pieces from the Royal Collection and from King Charles' own art collection. As one of the last remaining aristocratic townhouses in London, this property is steeped in royal history. The Garden Room is also home to a number of framed family photographs from Their Royal Highnesses' personal collection, many of which sit on top of the piano.This photograph of The Duchess of Cornwall was also taken in The Garden Room. Clarence House receives many visitors throughout the year - including Kings and Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers, religious leaders, and guests from the many charities with which Their Royal Highnesses are involved. In medieval times, King Edward III was so inspired by tales of King Arthur and the chivalry of the Knights of the Round Table that he set up his own group of honourable knights, called The Order of the Garter.

Clarence House currently serves as the London residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.[2] It has been Charles's residence since 2003. From 1953 until 2002 it was home to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother,[3] and before her, it was the official home of her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II.

Clarence House is a British royal residence which is located on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. The four-storey building is attached to St James’s Palace and is less than a five-minute walk from Buckingham Palace. Before the pandemic, Clarence House was open to the public during the summer months, with visitors given a guided tour around the five rooms and adjoining spaces on the ground floor. The tour of Clarence House would begin in the garden, where visitors could see the formal area added by the King in 2004 in memory of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Meanwhile, the morning room was originally designed as the breakfast room and, between 1949 and 1952, was used as The Duke of Edinburgh's study. It was also where Prince William and Kate Middleton, now the Prince and Princess of Wales, conducted their official engagement interview in 2010.

The front entrance used to be in this room, but was then rearranged to the end of the corridor, which stretches the entire length of the house, in the 1870s. This entrance gives the residents more privacy, and is concealed behind large black gates, also known as the Birthday Gates, as The Queen Mother would greet members of the public on her birthday with members of the Royal Family. After their marriage, Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh moved into Clarence House, though it was in need of renovation, including the repair of bomb damage. Last week, I was lucky enough to enjoy a private tour of Clarence House, the official London residence of The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. The closest available facilities are in St James’s Park (run by Royal Parks), opposite the visitor entrance to Clarence House.

The thing that struck me about Clarence House was its feel – it was homely. Patterned carpets and antique furniture fill the reception rooms, yet just give the feel of a well lived-in family home, denoted by the many, smiling photographs. Prince George playing with his grandfather feature heavily, as do photos of William and Harry.

Private sitting rooms lie on the first floor, with bedrooms and offices for the Royal Couple, and officially, Prince Harry (though he lives at Kensington Palace), on the second and third floors; staff rooms are also situated at the top of the house. The hall upstairs lies on top of the one on the ground floor, meaning that the rooms upstairs are likely in the same proportions above the Morning Room and Dining Room etc. The central window actually opens up completely to create a door to the garden, which many visitors have used to take a tour of the garden, or attend a reception outdoors. A baby grand piano sits in the corner too, with numerous family photos on its surface.

The Prince paid a further £1.6 million from his own funds for internal redecoration and arrangement. Having taken such care in decorating their new house, the royal couple had every expectation of a long residence, but the early death of King George VI in 1952 changed that. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who was only 52, now needed to vacate Buckingham Palace and she was assigned Clarence House, a building she thought ‘loathsome’. The late Queen Mother lived there for half a century until her death, when Prince Charles had the home remodelled and moved in the following year. Nevertheless, almost all of his grandmother’s furniture has been accommodated in the house. Clarence House has remained a working royal residence since it was built almost 200 years ago.