Inside King Charles & Queen Camilla’s relaxed country home and how it’s vastly different to grand Buckingham Palace
KING Charles and Queen Camilla’s relaxed country home is vastly different to the grandeur of Buckingham Palace.
Tucked away in the Cotswolds, just miles from Tetbury in Gloucestershire, King Charles retreats to Highgrove House to take some time out from the public demands of royal duties.
The home boasts nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, four reception rooms and a nursery wing – much less than the whopping 775 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms at Buckingham Palace.
King Charles stripped out the interior for essential repairs, and built a swimming pool as a present to him and his new bride Princess Diana.
The couple lived and brought up their sons their before they divorced.
Today, Highgrove’s Royal Gardens often open for tours, including group garden tours and champagne and tea tours.
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There is even a shop that sells artisan products like ports and chutneys.
King Charles said: “One of my great joys is to see the pleasure that the garden can bring to many of the visitors and that everybody seems to find some part of it that is special to them.”
As the Prince of Wales, he and Diana spent many weekends at the country estate with their young sons Prince William, now 40, and Prince Harry, 38.
When Charles moved in, his wife is believed to have taken on the task of decorating.
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Designer Dudley Poplak – who knew Princess Diana as a child – was hired to ensure she felt comfortable there.
After Charles and Diana’s divorce, the interior was overhauled again to accommodate the taste of his new wife Camila Parker Bowles, 75.
Following the death of his mother, King Charles visited the property to mourn privately.
Highgrove House was built between 1796 and 1798 by John-Paul Paul and remained in his family until it was bought by businessman Maurice Macmillan, son of ex-PM Harold Macmillan.
It is close to the walking trails of Westonbirt Arboretum and the Arts & Crafts country house, Rodmarton Manor.
It is a short drive from Queen Consort Camilla’s private house in Wiltshire.
Charles purchased it for between £800,000 and £1million – funded by the selling off of other parts of the Duchy of Cornwall portfolio – in 1980 and made it into his family home.
The property is now thought to be worth in excess of £3.2m – a fraction of the Duchy’s £1.2billion assets, which bring in £23m a year.
Royal expert Brian Hoey claims in his book, Not in Front of the Corgis, that the house was kitted out with a steel-lined panic room, which would stay intact if the rest of the house collapsed.
He wrote: “Inside [the room] are medical supplies including containers of Charles and Camilla’s blood group, long-lasting food and drinks, an armoury, radio transmitters equipped to obtain a signal even within its steel walls, air purifiers and chemical lavatories.”
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While Buckingham Palace boasts the perks of an extravagant mansion like a cinema and an indoor pool, Highgrove House is more stripped back for time to recharge.
