Just before the Royal Wedding, there was a lot of gossip about what the Queen would give Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The gossip was about real estate, which is the best kind of gossip, honestly. I still think it’s weird that Harry and Meghan are totally fine with staying at Nottingham Cottage while they’re in London, but I do think the Queen will give them a larger London pad once Meghan gets pregnant, probably. In the meantime, it looks like the royal-gossips were right: the Queen has gifted Harry and Meghan with York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were reportedly gifted a country home from Queen Elizabeth II herself, in honor of their recent nuptials, Metro reports. York Cottage is a royal property located at Sandringham Estate, a 20,000 acre estate in Norfolk, about 110 miles northeast of Kensington Palace. The queen inherited the land from her father, King George VI, in 1952, but it has been in the royal family much longer, dating back four British monarchs to 1862, according to the estate’s website.
With the addition of York Cottage, it is believed that Harry and Meghan now have three properties, including Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace and a newly acquired home in The Cotswolds.
The Cotswolds home is just a rental – they apparently signed a two-year lease, and the security upgrades were done before the wedding even happened. My guess is that the Queen really did “give” them York Cottage, which they knew a month ago, and that the cottage needs a lot of work, probably. So Harry and Meghan will probably stay at the Cotswolds cottage for the time being, while renovations are being done at York Cottage. The question is: will Harry and Meghan ever “move” full-time to York Cottage once the renovations are done? Because that’s what Will and Kate did once the Queen gave them Anmer Hall, also on the Sandringham Estate. Will and Kate were so pleased with it and so, so work-shy that they moved to Anmer full-time for several years. I doubt Harry and Meghan will be “allowed” to do the same – allowed by the Queen, allowed by the public, etc.
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Isn’t that the place that’s supposed to be “haunted”? lol. I’d still take it; looks beautiful from the outside!
No. I heard this is false. No security or privacy and being used as a office. I don’t believe this is their gift.
I agree. I live near Sandringham and if it’s the building that I think it is, it’s not far from the road (not visible from the road though, I don’t think) and it’s currently part of the estate office. It’s really easily accessed by anyone in the estate.
This is being taken from another report, taken from another report, etc. Nothing has been confirmed. Given the public access so close to the building, I’d doubt this one ends up being their country home. More speculation, we wait and see.
Why do these royal properties always need renovations,are they empty or abandoned most of time until someone is given the place?
Anmer Hall was in fine condition. Other families had lived in it happily for decades without feeling the need to rip out the fireplaces, put in new ones, add on nanny quarters with a separate kitchen (W&K).
At the time it was being rented long-term by high end kitchen designers who had installed their own expensive kitchen, with permission as an example of their kitchen design prowess. HM had to buy them out of their lease early. W&K decided to rip out the new custom kitchen and install another new custom kitchen.
Apartment 1A was also fine, had no asbestos problems, had running water, and was not filled with mice as some W&K fans like to pretend. It was being used as office and exhibit space by Historic Royal Palaces. It was not on the list of spaces that W&K could consider, but they wanted it any way. And they got it. It was W&K’s renovations, ripping out historic interior walls that exposed asbestos and caused the need for asbestos abatement.
As long as asbestos is secured away (behind solid wall, in undisturbed flooring), you don’t have to do abatement. When they decided to rip out the historic walls to make bigger bedrooms and multiple kitchens (family, nursery, staff, catering), W&K *caused* the asbestos to be exposed. That’s part of why those unnecessary changes spiraled to over 7 million. She isn’t Two Kitchens Kate; she’s more like Seven Kitchens Kate when you add them all up.
What is asbestos?
I saw photos of the “before” kitchen. It was an absolute crime to tear that out and start over. Wasteful and completely unnecessary – it was a gorgeous kitchen most people could only dream about.
+1000
Spot on!
Compare to the York Cottage which seem to be older (lovely as HM gran-parents home before the coronation); but The Sussexs dont seem to waste tax payers Duchy and POW funds like Willnot and the middletons grand upgrades.
Even the Duchess mom seem to be discreet and hardly trading on her BRF connection/Duke son in law as a hanger on.
Trooping this year and The Duchess of Sussex with HM event next week – should be very interesting photos and events!
Loopy: it’s a old insulation that they now know causes serious health problems . Very dangerous stuff
Loopy: Asbestos is a mineral that was once used umbiquitously in buildings. It’s golden era of usage is the industrial age in the construction industry when it was added to most building materials and surfaces
Too late they discovered that free floating asbestos fibres are toxic. The fibres cling to the lungs when breathed in and soon person develops lung-related diseases, usually pulmonary fibrosis.
It’s banned now, and has to be removed from any buildings if exposed. For really old buildings, if it is sealed away, it is safe, but most people prefer to remove it completely.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos
Asbestos is harmless if secured away? Tell that to my grandfather who is presently six feet under. He was a well known painter who died from it.
Janie, was he ripping out walls, exposing asbestos, refitting walls, and then painting over them? Or was he an artist who was somehow exposed to asbestos in the artwork he was creating? From what I remember, some Christmas ornaments and decorations had asbestos in/on them before the dangers were realized.
In home reno, as long as the asbestos is secured and not damaged, exposed, or removed, you don’t have problems. Example, lots of old floor tiles have asbestos in them. Rip them out and you have to do asbestos abatement because you released it into the air. Install new flooring over it, you’re fine.
Also @Janie, if he was a house painter, joint compound also contained asbestos. Mixing the dry powder with water for application or sanding it later freed up the particles. Textured paints also contained asbestos
@notasugarhere
It’s amusing to read that big long spiel about the acquiring and renovations of Apartment 1A because can you imagine if W+K took Apartment 1 next door instead? Then Harry and Meghan would have in all likelihood asked for Apartment 1A, got it in the same way as W +K did, probably done the same renovations (taking out asbestos etc..) and it would have cost the same amount. Would you have been outraged at H +M for that? somehow I doubt it.
Also, considering that Harry and Meghan’s alleged new KP home is next door to W + K there is a chance there could be asbestos in that apartment too (as well as other apartments in KP). If they are doing extensive renovations to that apartment (which is certainly possible) the asbestos will be disturbed and it will have to be removed.
Janie: Asbestos was added to some paints. Depending on what type of painter your grandpa was, it’s highly likely he was working with asbestos tainted paint.
Buildings weren’t the only asbestos-tainted items. Internal and external fixtures were also tainted with it. Eg wiring, fireplaces, fire guard products, ornaments, bricks, pipes, roofs, walls etc,
By ‘sealed away’i meant in buildings such that when covered by some other non-asbestos tainted material then it’s particles aren’t flying about in the air to cause health problems. The example Nota gives of tiling is a good one to demonstrate my meaning.
Usually when old buildings are renovated, walls are knocked through or old plaster is scrapped away which exposes the asbestos thus releasing it into the air. The only thing to do there is to remove it completely or figure out a way to cover it up completely.
@nota – you seem to have a great deal of detailed information about two houses you have never been in. Care to share your sources?
Megan: This information is publicly available.
1. Look at the Sovereign grant accounts for 2013-16
2. Charity that rented Apt 1A before WK posted videos about their wedding dress exhibition. Those are available on youtube.
3. The Palace released statements to PR explain the unusual item expenditure in those Sovereign grants
4. The tenants booted out of Anmer had published the kitchen they left behind because they used it as a selling point for their kitchen design business.
5. WK had a conversation about money at one of the public engagements and unfortunately for tyem, easy to lip read.
6. Planning permission for Anmer grounds were briefly public because the affected public (eg that tenant farmer) have to be given a chance to review and or object if necessary.
Nota you add half a million pounds every time you mention the cost of the KP renovations…
One, the catering kitchen was always in the works and is used for official KP functions. If you wouldn’t mind dinner for 40 being prepared in your personal kitchen fine but it would drive me crazy.
Two, the family kitchen Kate had installed allowed for privacy, intimacy and immediacy. No staff and perfect for warming a bottle or making a quick smoothie etc.
Three, asbestos experts may agree with you but there’s no way I could sleep at night knowing that stuff was around my children.
Four, the apartment received major high-tech security upgrades that had nothing at all to do with William and Kate being lazy or spoiled.
Five, part of the reno was publicly funded, not all of it.
Six, Anmer is Will and Kate’s to do with as they wish.
Seven, if you think personal taste/style don’t enter the equation when you acquire a new property then you don’t understand what renovation means.
Eight, William conned the queen and Charles into giving him and Kate the perks before they intended to earn them and that is the scandal, not the renovations. They were much needed imo but weren’t as urgent as other more pressing renos elsewhere, especially during austerity.
Nine, you’ve never uttered one peep about Anne’s entire clan soaking up taxpayer perks on her estate/compound.
You’ve never uttered one peep about Charles trying to con the queen into paying for a Camilla requested refurbishment at BP. The queen said no.
Lastly no peep about Camilla’s sister quietly receiving over £3M in interior design commissions over the years from Charles. Had this been Pippa you’d be shouting it from the rooftops lol.
You forgot about the tennis court at Anmer that had to be moved a few feet and cost 95K. Contained asbestos, is, as was said earlier, not a problem. Its disturbance is what causes problems and abatement is expensive.
W&K demanding that a farmer’s rented land be taken away so they could move the tennis court. The current location was blocking their view from the garden, you see, that’s why they moved it. And because Katie Keen loves tennis and wanted a brand new court. In that case, it was Charles who paid for it personally (not the taxpayers, not The Duchy).
It was the ripping out of historic walls at 1A that caused the need for asbestos abatement, which was part of why the costs skyrocketed. If they hadn’t rippped out those walls to destroy the historic footprint, they never would have know the asbestos was there. And as along as it wasn’t touched, it wasn’t a health problem. Their staff are not housed in W&K Apartment 1A, they’re in Diana’s old apartments 8&9. No worries they’ll intrude on family moments in the family kitchen. They also installed a kitchenette in the nursery, so presumably that’s where the majority of bottle warming by the multiple nannies takes place.
Events that take place at the Orangerie at KP are not catered out of the kitchen in 1A. W&K wanted the internal catering kitchen for personal entertaining.
Charles paid for the decorating, with many items loaned out of the Royal Collection. Vast majority of the other costs associated with 1A changes were paid by the taxpayers. Any security upgrades only happened because they demanded a space that turned out to be the most public-facing space possible. If they had taken one of the more private, available spaces, wouldn’t have been an issue.
Anmer doesn’t belong to W&K. It wasn’t given to them, just as whatever Harry and Meghan end up in with likely not be owned by them. They get to live there rent free, like the Kents did at Anmer years ago, but they don’t own it.
EA you must not have been reading on here for the past 3 years. I have frequently mentioned Anne, her kids, and how they’re getting away with murder vs. how the Yorks are treated. We had loads of discussions about 1A and Anmer at the time, including how the travel time from KP and Anmer to William’s “job” were the same, so there was no need to move to Anmer. Feel free to go look for them and read what I wrote.
I freely confess my ignorance about asbestos but I’m sorry it’s just one of those trigger words that frighten me. I would insist on removing it. As for security upgrades I will never question those. The future heir was always going to have those elements incorporated into any metro residence in which he and his family reside. Wireless security command center, blast proof windows, a state of the art panic room etc. credible or not kidnapping threats against George were reported last month.
I agree with one thing, the biggest tax payer moochers are princess anne and her kids but she knows how to keep her head down and stay out of the news.
1. WK do not use the KP catering kitchen. That is a completely separate kitchen from the 2 kitchens in their apartment which are their private and exclusive use. The palace doesn’t use their private kitchens for it’s catering needs. Ditto any charity galas / receptions held at KP. The big kitchen in their apartment is for their private entertainment.
2. Kate installed a smaller much more intimate kitchen for the family that she would cook in, but that doesn’t mean her larger kitchen is the catering kitchen for the Palace. Btw, the nursery floor also has a kitchen so really 3 kitchens.
3. Margaret lived in the asbestos walls and as far as we can tell, her kids are fine, and she lived a fairly long life in the apartment. Ditto all the previous inhabitants of the apartment.
4. The Palace already had high-tech security because of all the VIP people who live there. It’s not a Palace for royals exclusively. It also houses military personnel and other royals. They didn’t require extra measures on that point.
5. All of the reno was publicly funded. The Palace confirmed it. That’s why they were at such pains to say that the reno cost was high because WK were to take up official duties that September and needed a suitable London residence that was could be used for official duties and receptions. Ditto the newly leased helicopter. The Palace also tried to explain why it was so expensive by revealing the asbestos removal.
6. Anmer is leased to them just as all other properties are leased to other royals. Only Gatcombe and Sunninghill were purchased outright and gifted outright. WK used £1.5M of taxpayer funds to refurb it. Other costs were met by Charles or HM.
7. They renovated the properties regardless of whether it was needed. They didn’t restrict themselves to working with what was already there. Some things eg the KP main kitchen definitely needed to be refurbished, but knocking out walls or taking land from a tenant farmer so they could move their tennis court……
8. William couldn’t have a 4th gap yah. (His post Alevel gap yeah plus the 2 yrs after he resigned from SAR) He’d finally ran out of excuses to avoid his royal duties. For some inexplicable reason, HM and Charles believed him when he agreed to finally join the firm, but he bait and switched them because just as the reno was finished, he got EAAA to create a job for him and oops…..he was off to Anmer to hide away – Throne idle and William workshy came out of this period.
Kate just kept saying she was going to work as she had every year since they got married. I blame this bait and switch on him more than her.
9. Actually, Nota frequently corrects people who praise Anne + her brood for seeming to be down to earth who never use taxpayer funds. She frequently points out their arrangements and that recent Jubilee lunch that benefitted Peter to the tune of £750K.
10. Ditto Annabel Elliot. Nota has mentioned her several times.
I love all the asbestos experts in here lol.
I work at an air quality agency which issues permits for asbestos abatement, does inspections and penalizes renovators who don’t do the work properly. If I don’t know an answer to any of your questions about asbestos, Becks1, I’m sure I can find a co-worker who can.
So “cottage” must mean something different in the UK than in the US.
Lol.
Irony, the average Brit probably lives in smaller houses than us average Yanks. Thinking of my home metropolis, Phoenix where SqFt-age can be in the 2.5K +
There were similar “cottages” at Newport and on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.
@Betsy yuck, Lake Minnetonka!!
LOL, like the “Great Camps” in the Adirondacks. Technically, they were “cabins.” Practically, some of them are just about as grand as BP.
Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, describes says this type of cottage is for people whose main home is a Palace!!
I feel like an E.M. Forster novel could be set in that house. They’ll be wearing boater hats and playing lawn tennis and croquet and going for rows on whatever bit of water that is.
I’m not buying it. Visitors to Sandringham can walk right past this house. There’s absolutely no privacy and its currently being used as offices with no word of them being moved anywhere. I also don’t think the Sussexes would like to move that far from London. My guess is they’ll buy somewhere closer to Windsor and Highgrove.
Next week the Queen is taking Meghan overnight on her private train to make three appearances together the next day.
York Cottage needs a hell of a lot of money spent on improvements. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it ends up costing more than what William and Kate spent on Amner Hall. I’m already eagerly awaiting the mental gymnastics that are going to take place to justify Harry and Meghan spending a lot of Duchy of Cornwall money and taxpayer money for this.
🙂
At least H&M can show their work, which can’t be said for W&K. Anmer didn’t need all that work and the costs were unnecessary but York cottage does need work.
Do we think Harry would drop his personal privacy screen enough to enjoy living there ? Thats the primary reason I’m skeptical. Google is full of pictures taken by tourists, even from the other side of the pond/lake. Paparazzi with their high powered lenses could likely see right into the house never mind the surrounding yard or gardens. Unless by renovations its meant not only inside the house but outside grounds and changing road access etc