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For almost two centuries, Clarence House has been the home to senior members of the British royal family. Today, the house is known as the London home of Prince Charles and Camila, Duchess of Cornwall, but the residence has a fascinating history of its own and has undergone many reinventions over the years.
Here, what you should know about Clarence House.
It was built between 1825 and 1827.
The residence was designed by John Nash next to the Palace of St. James as home to the son of King George III, Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence, who would soon be King William IV, in the 19th century. The three-story stuccoed mansion was luxurious, to be sure, but far less resplendent than Nash’s work at Buckingham Palace.
Clarence House has been the home to several members of royalty and their families.
King William IV would continue to live at Clarence House even after ascending the throne. After her death in 1837, her sister, Princess Augusta, moved, until her death, just three years later.
In 1841 Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, settled in the royal residence; she would call it home until her death in the 1860s. A few years later, Victoria’s second son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, moved. Like some before him, Alfred renovated parts of the house. In particular, he would employ the Waller & Sons firm to reorient the building to the south, and would install a Russian Orthodox chapel for his wife, the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (the latter was dismantled after Maria’s death). Then in 1901 Queen Victoria’s third son and her wife, Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, and Louise, Duchess of Connaught, moved out after ordering some redecorations of their own.
After the duke’s death in 1942, in the midst of World War II, Clarence House was placed at the disposal of the British Red Cross War Organization and the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
The next royal resident of the house would be Queen Elizabeth herself, then still a princess, and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The couple moved after their marriage in 1947, and modernized the building with more modern electrical, heating, and hot water systems. However, with some wartime rationing and restrictions, renovations were modest, as were aesthetic updates, overseen by Philip.
After the Queen’s accession in 1952, she and her family moved to Buckingham Palace; The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret took over Clarence House. The Queen Mother oversaw her own renovations and redecorations, many of which have remained.
“Today it still honors the taste of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, particularly in the morning room, I think, where you can see her Chelsea porcelain and her painting collections,” Kathryn Jones, chief curator of decorative arts at Royal Collection Trust, he told Google Arts and Culture.
Today, they are Prince Charles and Camila, the main house of the Duchess of Cornwall.
The royal couple uses Clarence House as a private residence and as offices for their royal home. Although they have multiple homes in Britain, Clarence House is the true base of operations.
Over the years, they have added their own touches to the building, some with the help of interior designer Robert Kime. “The most important change has been in The Dining Room, which has striking and unusual bronze trim to the ceiling,” said Jones. “The other thing that always surprises you when you are indoors is how much the garden is present: many of the rooms face the garden and there is a feeling that it is almost like an extra room for the house.”
The residence can be visited by the public, both in person and virtually.
Each year, Clarence House opens to visitors in August, offering guided tours of five rooms on the ground floor. (Of course, due to the coronavirus, tours were suspended for August 2020.)
Royal observers from around the world can also tour the residence digitally, thanks to a virtual tour organized by Google Arts and Culture.
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