A king without a castle: Windsor and Buckingham Palace to stay empty following Queen's death
BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND: Following the Queen's death, neither Windsor Castle nor Buckingham Palace will have any permanent residents. The Queen used to spend weekends at Windsor Castle and the weekdays at Buckingham Palace. She spent her last few months and the summers at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will not be moving into Buckingham Palace for at least five years, due to an ongoing renovation worth £369M (~$417M), reported The Sun. They plan to use it as an office while mostly living at Clarence House nearby, just 400 yards away from Buckingham Palace, and where they've lived for 19 years. Balmoral Castle will also have no royals in official residence and is set to be opened up to tourists shortly.
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It was reported that King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will stay at Sandringham in Norfolk for a while. The couple also has their lovely country home, Highgrove House, located close to Tetbury in Gloucestershire.
According to the outlet, if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decide to move back to the UK, they would mostly move into the now empty Windsor Castle. They had allegedly been disappointed earlier that they did not receive the 1,000-year-old castle after getting married but rather the much smaller Frogmore Cottage.
When William and Kate were made Prince and Princess of Wales, it was expected that they would reside in Windsor Castle. However, the family of five - with children George, 9, Charlotte, 7, and Louis, 4 - have only just settled into their Adelaide Cottage nearby on the Windsor estate. The couple had moved from Kensington Palace. According to the outlet, a source said, "It was previously said that William and Kate would move into Windsor Castle, but there are no plans for them to leave Adelaide Cottage."
It's unclear if Charles and Camilla will change their residence even after Buckingham Palace's renovations are finished. Before being rehung, professionals will "conserve and preserve" the wallpaper in a few of the rooms, notably of the Yellow Drawing Room in the East Wing. "Refurbishment is very far behind schedule but the Monarch should be living at Buckingham Palace. It's the heart of the monarchy in London, otherwise it risks becoming just a tourist attraction. We effectively have a king without a palace to live in," a source told DailyMail.
