King Charles and Queen Camilla will not be living at Buckingham Palace once its 10-year, £370 million renovation is completed next year, royal accounts released on Friday reveal. In a departure from tradition, they will instead make Clarence House their forever home, having lived there for more than 20 years.
James Chalmers, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “After careful consideration, and to greatly increase opportunities for public access, the King and Queen have decided not to adopt Buckingham Palace as a personal residence and will instead continue to use Clarence House as their London home. Their Majesties will, however, have access to private rooms within the palace where they can retire during the course of a working day, and which could be utilised as potential residential accommodation in times ahead.”
Buckingham Palace's Role and Renovation
Buckingham Palace has been the official home of the sovereign and headquarters of the monarchy since 1837. The move is intended to open up the palace to the public on a much wider scale. Its restoration and renovation, funded by the taxpayer, includes an overhaul of the building’s electrics, plumbing and heating, as well as accessibility improvements. It is scheduled for completion before 31 March 2027.
Chalmers added: “This is both a change from the past and a recognition of the future. Let me be clear, however, that in all other ways Buckingham Palace will continue to be both the ceremonial and operational centre of royal life.”
History of Clarence House
Built by John Nash between 1825 and 1827, this Grade I-listed mansion meets the west end of St James’s Palace on the Mall, just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. It is a four-storey building with a creamy, stucco façade, designed in a neoclassical style. Compared to Buckingham Palace, Clarence House has smaller, more intimate proportions and plainer — relatively speaking — interiors.
As its name suggests, it was built for the Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and since then has been home to a string of royal family members. Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, moved in with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, living there until she became queen in 1952. Afterwards, the house was prepared for Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who moved in with Princess Margaret shortly before the coronation in 1953. Over her 50-year tenure, she turned the Duke of Edinburgh’s study into the Morning Room, installing a Georgian marble chimney piece and a new plaster ceiling. She also opened out two ground floor rooms to create the new Garden Room, used to entertain large groups of guests, and used the walls to display some of the most important artworks from the royal collection.
Charles and Camilla’s Time in Clarence House
Charles lived in the five-bedroom house with his parents until he was three, moving back in himself half a century later. In 2002, before doing so, designer Robert Kime was enlisted to update the interiors. The renovation included new colour schemes, textiles and pieces of artwork, but remained fairly faithful to the Queen Mother’s tastes. “The alterations were designed to reflect the change of occupancy, while maintaining the familiar atmosphere of a much-loved family house,” reads the royal family’s website.
Today, the house has a symmetrical layout, with a series of rooms branching off the central entrance hall with a red carpet and walls hung with gold-framed paintings. At the far end, displayed prominently, hangs the Queen Mother’s Garter Banner, depicting the royal arms and her family crest. To the left is the Morning Room, with its ornate ceiling plasterwork showing Queen Elizabeth’s crown, and large windows overlooking the garden. It leads through to the library, now used as a smaller dining room, as well as to the formal dining room, where Charles and Camilla added bronze ceiling coving as part of their restoration. Above the fireplace is a large portrait of the Queen Mother. To the right, another corridor — known as the Horse Corridor for its collection of equestrian paintings — leads to the Garden Room, which contains a grand piano and a golden harp. A lift is tucked just behind the passage. Photos of Princes George and Louis’ christenings were taken in the Morning Room.
Maintenance and Costs
Since moving in in 2003, planning applications show that the couple have undertaken regular maintenance of the property, including updating the basement-level staff kitchen, repairing the boundary wall, redecorating part of the exterior, and refurbishing the Porte Cochere terrace outside. These repairs are all funded by the taxpayer through the Sovereign Grant. The royal family’s most recent accounts show that £67.5 million was spent on property maintenance in the last year, up from £41.2 million previously. This covers buildings like Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, St James’s Palace, Kensington Palace and Windsor Castle.
Besides the Buckingham Palace refurbishment, the accounts detail some of the biggest projects undertaken by the royal family in the last year. £1.5 million, for example, was spent on repair and redecoration of windows and doors across the London Estate, while external refurbishment at Kensington Palace cost £912,000. St James’s Palace got a new pass office and barrier for £831,000, while a roof replacement at Windsor Castle cost £634,000. Expenditure on Buckingham Palace this year alone totalled £39.3 million.
