I’ve been covering the Windsors for years and years, but it’s only this week when I learned something new about Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge. I thought it was a large mansion with extensive grounds, but I had no idea that the “property” was big enough to include a dozen other structures, including guest cottages and a chapel. From the Guardian:
With its 30 rooms nestling in 40 hectares (98 acres) of secluded grounds in Windsor Great Park, Royal Lodge has been the home of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson for two decades and been likened to a very grand country house. Now it too is in the crosshairs of public outrage as pressure mounts to justify the discredited prince’s right to live in such grandeur in a crown estate property on “a peppercorn” rent.
The Grade II-listed Georgian mansion is laid out across three storeys with two-storey wings, and features a “formal room” and a spacious drawing room with intricate mouldings and millwork, high ceilings and large, arched windows opening out on to the rear terrace. There is a conservatory and a saloon, reportedly measuring about 15 metres by 9 metres (48ft by 30ft), and seven bedrooms. In fact, the residence is so large that both Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were able to host their wedding receptions at home.
One person, who has seen inside, has described its style as classic elegance with antique furniture and rugs, walls hung with art from the royal collection and fresh flowers in all the main rooms. Visitors can expect to be greeted by a butler on arrival, and there is a cook and housekeeper, according to reports.
Its extensive grounds include a chapel lodge, six cottages as well as a gardener’s cottage and police security accommodation. Beatrice and Eugenie grew up there, and the garden boasts their initialled, personalised wooden swings. There is room for a swimming pool, a driving range for the golf-obsessed prince and tennis courts, according to reports. There is also a mini-sized thatched cottage in its grounds, Y Bwthyn Bach (The Little Cottage), which was originally given to the then Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret by the people of Wales.
But for all its grandeur, the signs are that Royal Lodge is in need of repair. Recent photographs of the exterior stucco show evidence of peeling and black mould. The Sun reported last year it required an estimated £2m in repairs, with Andrew reportedly paying £200,000 for roof repairs.
Now I understand why the Prince and Princess of Wales wanted Royal Lodge, and now I understand what they’re doing with Forest Lodge, their latest forever home. They’re trying to turn Forest Lodge into this, even if they have to grab public park land to get it. SIX cottages plus a gardener’s cottage plus a security cottage plus a swimming pool and tennis courts? Good lord. Well, obviously, a lot of people are narrowing in on Royal Lodge. People understand that “relinquishing royal titles” is a nothingburger punishment for Andrew, especially given that he still lives in this enormous mansion. Well, the Telegraph now reports that Andrew’s latest business deal is “dead in the water,” leaving people to wonder if he can afford to live in Royal Lodge for much longer.
Prince Andrew’s future at Royal Lodge is in doubt after the collapse of a business deal that was intended to provide a financial lifeline, the Telegraph can reveal. The deal would have allowed the Prince to abide by the terms of his lease by paying for the hugely expensive upkeep of the vast Windsor estate. Without it, he could face eviction from the 30-room Windsor property, on which he has not paid rent for two decades.
There are fears in Andrew’s circles that the wider Royal family is trying to force him into exile by leaving him with nowhere to live in the UK. The lease agreement between Andrew and his landlord, the Crown Estate, demands that the Prince fund the upkeep of the Grade II-listed property, which is thought to be in a poor state of repair. The King last year seized upon the clause as a means of smoking him out and withdrew his personal allowance and security provision. But the Prince managed to cling on, citing proof of independent income through a commercial partnership with Dutch company StartUpBootCamp (SBC).
Sources confirmed to the Telegraph on Tuesday that this deal is now “dead in the water”. The deal was outlined to Buckingham Palace officials at a meeting last summer. At the time, the King was also privately funding the Prince and royal aides sought assurances that other money being channelled into the same bank account was legitimate. A short time afterwards, that personal allowance was withdrawn, meaning that the palace no longer had any leverage to demand answers over Andrew’s income.
The SBC deal has since been abandoned after company directors are said to have baulked at the negative publicity embroiling the Prince over his connections with Jeffrey Epstein and the Chinese spy scandal, fearing the tie-up would be too damaging for their brand. Such introductions would have been hugely valuable to SBC as it vied for market share with US giant Y Combinator. For each connection, the Prince had expected to make a hefty sum.
SBC began talks with senior palace officials last summer to “seek approval before moving ahead with discussions and agreeing commercial terms” and began a “scoping exercise” on reigniting the Pitch@Palace network in the Middle East and Asia. The palace sought reassurances from SBC that the proposed commercial partnership would not damage the reputation of the wider Royal family. A royal source insisted at the time that while they could not comment on the nature of any private meetings or presentations, they were taking a “passive rather than an active role” in the Prince’s financial arrangements. Even then, they could only seek “verbal assurances”. SBC gave the King’s advisers an undertaking that it would not use Buckingham Palace or Prince Andrew’s connections in any of its promotional material.
The meeting provided sufficient reassurance that the Prince had access to legitimate funding. Efforts to force the Prince’s eviction by withdrawing his personal allowance and funding for his security provision subsequently failed. It was, palace sources admit, a “painful process”. The collapse of the SBC deal, which the palace was not informed about, raises questions about how the Prince is now funding the upkeep of Royal Lodge.
The news, to me, is not “some shady deal fell apart recently.” The news here is that up until last autumn, one year ago, Charles was “privately funding” Andrew. They can’t keep their stories straight on what money Andrew was getting and from whom, just like they can’t keep their stories straight about Andrew’s titles and honors and what was relinquished and when. It’s all a shell game to them, and we’re about a week away from royal reporters tucking in some breathy aside about “well, obviously, Charles was still privately funding Andrew this whole time but he’s not anymore and no we refuse to question why the palace lied to us about it for years.”
Photos courtesy of AvalonRed.
