Shortly after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, mourners began to gather outside Buckingham Palace in London, the most famous of all the properties associated with the Queen, but by no means the only one. Here we take a look back through the many houses, palaces, and castles the Queen lived in throughout her life, starting with her very first home...
Queen Elizabeth II hasn’t always lived in palaces. Born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on 21 April 1926, she spent the first few years of her life in a townhouse in Mayfair, London. 17 Bruton Street had been the home of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore since 1920, where they lived with their daughter Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who would later become the Queen Mother. Lady Elizabeth married Prince Albert, the Duke of York, in 1923, and the couple moved into the Strathmore family house just weeks before their eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born.
Princess Elizabeth was third in line to the throne, behind her father and her uncle, the then-King Edward VIII. Here she is pictured being carried out of 17 Bruton Street on her way to be christened. The family didn’t spend long in the 18th-century townhouse, relocating to a larger property after a couple of months. Sadly, 17 Bruton Street no longer stands, widely believed to have been damaged during the Second World War. Other reports however, including one by the BBC, suggest the house was demolished and developed as part of Berkeley Square House, which still stands there today.
The family’s next home was in an equally busy part of Central London. It's where Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, spent most of their childhood. 145 Piccadilly was a white, stone-faced terrace property made up of five storeys and lavish interiors fit for a future Queen. The hallway of 145 Piccadilly reportedly featured chintz-covered armchairs and a Persian carpet lay in the morning room, which led into a hallway with light green columns and a soft brown carpet, according to HELLO! magazine.
There were plenty of personal touches around the family home, including books, photographs, and a glass cabinet full of tiny animals for the princesses to play with, as well as the real-life corgis Elizabeth is now known for loving (pictured here), of course. 145 Piccadilly was eventually demolished in the 1960s, as part of a redevelopment of Hyde Park to make room for the InterContinental Hotel and the seven-lane road between Park Lane and Hyde Park Corner.
While 145 Piccadilly was Queen Elizabeth II’s childhood home in Central London, the Royal Family had another residence, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Nestled within Richmond Park, White Lodge was originally built in the early 1700s to satisfy the Royal Family’s love of hunting, owing to its deer population. The current monarch’s parents were asked to take up residence at the property by her grandmother, Queen Mary, also known as Mary of Teck.
The neo-classical Palladian building housed interiors which suited the gentry of the day. This picture shows the drawing room in 1894, the same year the Queen’s grandmother, Queen Mary, gave birth to her uncle, the future King Edward VIII, at White Lodge.
The future King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their daughters did not spend much time at White Lodge because the popularity of the surrounding park meant it lacked privacy. The property was then given to Viscount Lee of Fareham in 1927. In 1955, White Lodge became the home of Sadler’s Wells Ballet School, which later became the world-renowned Royal Ballet School. White Lodge is still the home of the dance school today. Queen Elizabeth II had been its patron, and Charles its president, though this may change now he is King.
Much like White Lodge, Royal Lodge was used by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and the young princesses as a country escape. The 30-room, Georgian house was gifted to the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, in 1931. Its Grade II-listed building is set among more than 20 acres of secluded gardens in Windsor.
When they took over the Lodge, the Royal Family added two wings to the property and developed the garden to house two smaller lodges and three cottages. A fourth cottage was then gifted to the princesses by the people of Wales, to be used as a playhouse.
Following the accession in 1936, King George VI and his family moved to Windsor Castle, but retained Royal Lodge as a holiday home. Following the death of her husband, the Queen Mother then returned to Royal Lodge permanently and lived there for the remaining 70 years of her life. Royal Lodge was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II’s son, Prince Andrew, in 2003, following the death of the Queen Mother. He and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, reportedly still live together at the royal residence in Windsor, which is rumoured to be worth around £30 million ($36.6m).
By 1939, the family had moved from the house at Piccadilly to Buckingham Palace as their main London residence, as heavy bombing began to hit the city. At the start of the war, their previous home, 145 Piccadilly, was used as an office for war relief efforts, but on 7 October 1940 the building was severely damaged by bombs, according to Westend at War, and was unusable for the remainder of the war. Buckingham Palace was built in 1703 by the Duke of Buckingham. King George III then took over the property in 1762 and developed it into the iconic building it is today.
Much of Buckingham Palace remains unchanged from when the Royal Family first moved in. These photos of the White Drawing Room show little difference between 1947 and 2011. The room is considered one of the more intimate State Rooms at the palace, regularly used for audiences and small gatherings. Queen Elizabeth II used to use a hidden door disguised as a mirror to enter the room before receiving guests. The room has also been used for Christmas broadcasts and family photos.
Like most children, the princesses were evacuated from London during the war. The young royals spent most of their time at Windsor Castle, which is approximately 20 miles outside of the capital. The fortress is the largest occupied castle in the world, with more than 1,000 opulently decorated rooms, and, including King Charles III, it has housed 40 monarchs over a period of almost 1,000 years.
In 1940, the future Queen Elizabeth II gave her first royal address to the nation from Windsor Castle, aged just 14. She spoke as part of the BBC’s radio show Children’s Hour, in an attempt to boost the morale of children who had been separated from their parents. The short speech was broadcasted from one of the castle’s many drawing rooms.
Each Christmas, Elizabeth and Margaret would perform a pantomime in Windsor Castle’s Waterloo Chamber. The imposing room features a table that can seat up to 150 guests. It is thought to be the largest of its kind in Europe, and was made in India for Queen Victoria. The walls of Waterloo Chamber are lined with portraits of monarchs, commanders and statesmen from the alliance that defeated Napoleon in 1815 – hence its name.
In 1969, the public were given rare access to the interiors of Windsor Castle as the family were filmed as part of a BBC documentary Royal Family. Here, Queen Elizabeth II sits with Prince Philip and their children Princess Anne and Prince as a camera captures the family at lunch. Filming took place over a period of a year and was broadcast on 21 June, 1969.
In March 2022, Windsor Castle became Queen Elizabeth II’s permanent home and main official residence. Following her death, the castle, alongside all the other royal palaces and castles, closed to the public as part of the official period of national mourning. In normal times, guests can tour the state apartments, semi-state rooms and St George’s Chapel, but the private apartments are normally kept from prying eyes. Snippets of the private rooms are sometimes shared by the Royal Family, such as this photo of the Queen reading Platinum Jubilee celebration cards in the Oak Room. The room used to be known as the Gothic Breakfast Room, thanks to its heavy Gothic panelling and gilt ceiling.
Though she grew up in England, Queen Elizabeth II also enjoyed annual trips to Balmoral Estate in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The rolling estate has been the Scottish residence of the Royal Family since Prince Albert bought it for Queen Victoria in 1852 for £32,000 ($37k). The current Balmoral was developed alongside the smaller, existing house, and four years later the new castle was finished.
Away from the city, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret enjoyed the simple childhood pleasures of living in the countryside. The family would often play charades and sing Scottish ditties, while the expansive grounds offered ample space for pony rides. The princesses’ governess, ‘Crawfie’, wrote about the sisters’ upbringing in her book The Little Princesses. She explained how “at night, after dinner, seven pipers in their kilts and sporrans would walk playing through the hall and the dining room… Lilbet [Elizabeth] and Margaret loved this nightly ceremony and were usually waiting to peep over the stairs at the seven stalwart pipers going by.”
The Balmoral Estate was described as "heaven" by the Queen, and it’s not hard to see why. The 50,000 acres of luscious greenery encompasses forests, valleys, impeccable gardens, and arable pastures, and offers astonishing views of the Highlands landscape.
Balmoral’s interiors are as impressive as the plot on which it sits. The largest room is the Castle Ballroom, which has long been the centrepiece of the castle’s parties and events. A wooden staircase leads up to a doorway on the far side of the room and the walls are hung with mounted stag heads and antlers. The room is filled with Highlands style, including tartan motifs while three chandeliers hang from the wood-panelled ceilings. Dances have taken place in the grand room since Queen Victoria’s reign, and it is the only room normally open to the public for viewing.
Her Majesty always had a soft spot for Balmoral, and it was during a month-long stay with the Royal Family in the Scottish castle in 1947 that Prince Philip proposed to then-Princess Elizabeth. The pair wed in London, but continued to use Balmoral Castle as a holiday home for the rest of their lives.
Craigowan Lodge was a special place for the monarch. Situated on the edge of a forest, she used to enjoy long walks and picnics here with her family (above with Prince Philip in 1972). “I think Granny is the most happy there,” her granddaughter Princess Eugenie has said, speaking on the ITV programme, Our Queen At Ninety. She spent time here after her husband’s death in April 2021 and clearly saw it as a sanctuary in her old age.
The seven-bedroom Craigowan Lodge just a mile from Balmoral, was one of the Queen’s favourite homes. She would stay here every April and for two weeks in the summer when the main castle was open to the public. It is fully expected that the Royal Family will continue to use it regularly in a similar way.
After they married, then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip rented a property in Surrey called Windlesham Moor. The home was bought in a state of disrepair by a man called Philip Hill in 1942 for £40,000 ($46k). He renovated the property just before he passed away, and his widow rented the property to the royals. The Victorian house wasn’t your typical first home, and comprised a 50-foot drawing room, four reception rooms, a study and a games room, alongside the five main bedrooms. The exteriors were equally charming, with tidy gardens and footpaths zigzagging across the 58-acre plot.
The most spacious room in the house was reportedly the nursery, which was said to be two guest bedrooms joined together. Prince Charles was born at Buckingham Palace in 1948, but the small family spent most of their time at their Surrey residence.
On 4 July 1949, the Royal Family moved to Clarence House, which had become their official home after the wedding. The property was built beside St James’s Palace on The Mall in Westminster in the 1820s, and is considered a more informal royal residence. Renowned architect John Nash had designed the building for the Duke of Clarence, along with other iconic London landmarks including Regent Street, Marble Arch and the first version of Trafalgar Square.
Prince Philip opted to liven up the Victorian interiors, and had the electric wiring, heating, and hot water systems revamped and new furniture brought in. The couple had received most of the furniture as wedding presents, including the Georgian table in the formal Dining Room, which had been gifted by the Royal Warrant Holders Association.
Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth each had their own sitting room. The Princess’s room (pictured) was on the first floor and included Chippendale and Sheraton furniture, while the ceiling remained intact from Nash’s original design.
In August 1950, Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth had their second child, Princess Anne, and the family lived in Clarence House for the next two years. Following the sudden death of King George VI in 1952, his widow, the Queen Mother, moved into Clarence House. The Queen Mother remained at the property even during the short period that Princess Diana moved in in 1981.
Before Princess Elizabeth became Queen, she and Prince Philip had divided their time between their homes in the United Kingdom and in Malta, where the Prince was stationed as a serving Royal Navy officer. The couple had a second home on the island between 1949 and 1951, Villa Guardamangia, which was built in the mid-18th century and is located on the outskirts of Malta’s capital, Valletta. Much like the couple’s other residences, it boasted plenty of sumptuous living spaces, as well as six bedrooms.
The couple only rented the property for a handful of years, and it has since changed ownership several times. In 2019 the once-lavish property went on the market for £5.3 million ($7.5m), and the Maltese government eventually bought it for £4.5 million ($6.3m) the following year. The Grade II-listed property suffered years of neglect once its royal residents moved out, but it is undergoing a complete restoration. The authorities hope to eventually turn the building into a museum.
Living in Malta was a form of escapism for the couple, as they were able to lead a relatively normal life. In the early years of her marriage, it’s said the Queen enjoyed swimming, picnicking, and driving around in a Morris Minor, while Prince Philip served as a First Lieutenant onboard HMS Chequers.
The Royal couple helped design the ship’s interiors, including The State Drawing Room (above). "The overall idea was to give the impression of a country house at sea," said Sir Hugh Casson, Britannia’s architect. Famously describing it as “the one place I can truly relax”, Britannia was the scene of many happy family holidays sailing the Western Isles of Scotland and the Queen cried for the first time in public at its farewell ceremony in 1997.
One of Queen Elizabeth's main duties in Scotland each year was to spend Holyrood Week in her Scottish palace in early summer. During this annual event, which celebrates Scottish culture and history, and involves an investiture (pictured), – duties that will now fall to King Charles III – the Queen would hand out honours to notable Scottish residents.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse is considered the jewel of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, and it has been the home of Scottish kings and queens since the 16th century. Its past residents have included Mary, Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Investitures take place in the Great Gallery (pictured), which displays a long list of portraits of Scottish monarchs, both real and mythical. The Palace is also rumoured to be home to the odd spooky spirit, namely the ghost of ‘Bald Agnes’, a woman who was executed for alleged witchcraft in the 16th century. Agnes is said to have been spotted roaming the state rooms on more than occasion.
Sandringham House is owned by The Royal Family, rather than the Crown, and it is where royal Christmas celebrations take place each year. Queen Elizabeth II loved it so much she would stay at the Norfolk home until February, and it was where she recorded most of her annual, festive addresses to the nation. In 2020 and 2021 the Queen stayed at Windsor Castle for Christmas due to coronavirus restrictions.
Set among almost 20,000 acres of greenery, Sandringham House came under royal ownership in 1862. The Queen spent many Christmas holidays here, joined by many members of The Royal Family who traditionally visit The Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate on Christmas Day morning. The house was rebuilt in 1870 and then a ballroom was added in 1881 and a guest wing constructed in the 1890s.
Sandringham featured all of the latest mod-cons following its various reconstructions, and was one of the first houses in England to boast gas lighting, flushing toilets, and working showers. The house was then passed through the generations via King George V, who described Sandringham as somewhere he loved “better than anywhere else in the world”, and Queen Elizabeth II's father, who wrote that he had “always been so happy” in the house.
Most recently Queen Elizabeth II was pictured at Sandringham House celebrating the start of the Platinum Jubilee year, which celebrates 70 years since her accession to the throne after her father, King George VI died in one of Sandringham’s many bedrooms on 6 February 1962.
Sandringham House isn’t the only property on the estate, and there are several well-appointed houses peppered across the grounds. The five-bedroom Wood Farm Cottage was a bolthole for Prince Philip following his retirement from public duties in 2017. After her husband’s death in April 2021, it became a place of refuge for the Queen, who spent her 96th birthday here in April 2022, as well as the 70th anniversary of the death of her father George V1 on 6 February, marking her seventh decade on the throne.
The Grade II-listed property, located on a secluded part of the Sandringham Estate, overlooking the sea, had long been a favourite retreat for the Queen and Prince Philip. Staff didn't need to wear uniform and the Queen was known to muck in with the washing-up. Friends say it was a place where she and the Duke could be "a normal couple". It was once the home of the so-called Lost Prince – Prince John, the youngest son of George V and Queen Mary, who suffered from epilepsy and learning difficulties.
Hillsborough Castle is the least lived-in of Queen Elizabeth's properties, and it is the monarch’s official Northern Ireland residence near Lisburn in County Down. Her Majesty stayed in the property when she had official business in Northern Ireland and this is where King Charles III will now stay. It is also the official home of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Built in the late 18th century by Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, the two-storey Georgian home sits among 100 acres of lush grounds filled with ornamental gardens and fairytale follies. Hillsborough Estate was sold to the British government following the creation of Northern Ireland in the 1920s. It then became an official royal residence and is where senior royals stay during visits.
Although not technically a residence, in 2022 Queen Elizabeth II was given her own underground line on London’s tube network. Here, The Queen made a surprise visit to the opening ceremony of The Elizabeth Line, which runs from Reading and Heathrow Airport, in west London, to Shenfield, in Essex, and Abbey Wood, in south-east London. The line officially opened on 24 May 2022, and Elizabeth was clearly delighted to be celebrated in such a unique way.
Even in the last few days of her life Queen Elizabeth II carried out the duties expected of her. In this photo, taken just two days before her death, Her Majesty stands in the Drawing Room at Balmoral Castle, where shortly afterwards she received the leader of the Conservative Party Liz Truss and invited her to become Prime Minister and form a new government. This ceremonial duty, traditionally carried out at Buckingham Palace, was held at Balmoral due to the Queen's poor health.
The extraordinary St Giles' Cathedral, around halfway down Edinburgh's Royal Mile, is where Her Majesty's body lay in state for 24 hours from 12 September 2022 following a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Queen knew St Giles' well – she was presented with the Honours of Scotland here in 1953, and she regularly took part in the Order of the Thistle ceremonies here.
From Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II's body is due to be flown to London, where she will be laid in state in Westminster Hall for five days. After this, her state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey, the place where she was crowned Queen all those years ago.
Following Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral, her coffin will be taken by procession to St George's Chapel in Windsor from Westminster Abbey via Hyde Park. The Queen's final resting place will be the King George VI Memorial Chapel within St George's, where she will be interred with her husband, Prince Philip.
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