{"id":522907,"date":"2025-10-23T19:31:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/522907\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T19:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:31:24","slug":"the-history-of-royal-lodge-prince-andrews-current-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/522907\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Royal Lodge, Prince Andrew\u2019s Current Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Andrew\u2019s residence, Royal Lodge, has been in the news this week after it was revealed he has not paid rent in over two decades<\/a>. Andrew has paid \u201cone peppercorn (if demanded)\u201d in rent per year to the Crown Estate since 2003, a phrase used to signify that rent technically exists to make the lease valid but in actuality means no money is paid.<\/p>\n

Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, have lived at the Royal Lodge since the early 2000s, and lease the property from the Crown Estate. (As a note, The Crown Estate<\/a> is a collection of lands and holdings belonging to the British monarch, but it is not King Charles\u2019s private property nor does he make decisions about its assets.) Here\u2019s what to know about the history of Royal Lodge:<\/p>\n

The Royal Lodge dates back to the 17th century.\"HistoricPublic Domain<\/p>\n

The Royal Lodge in Windsor Park, England by William Daniell, 1827.<\/p>\n

Since 1662, there has been a house on the Royal Lodge site, and by 1750, it was known as \u201cthe Lower Lodge.\u201d In the mid-1700s, it was home to Thomas Sandby, who was Deputy Ranger of the Great Park, and the home was called \u201cthe Deputy Ranger\u2019s House.\u201d<\/p>\n

It became royal accommodation in 1812.\"HisPrint Collector\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

View of the Royal Lodge at Windsor in Berkshire, residence of George, Prince of Wales, 1823.<\/p>\n

George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV) planned to rebuild Cumberland Lodge and used Lower Lodge as temporary accommodation. It was renamed \u201cPrince Regent\u2019s Cottage\u201d and subsequently the \u201cKing\u2019s Cottage.\u201d In the 1820s, it got its current name, \u201cRoyal Lodge.\u201d In the 1830s, King William IV completely rebuilt the house (with the exception of the conservatory).<\/p>\n

King George VI used the Royal Lodge as a country retreat.\"PrincessesLisa Sheridan\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret play with a corgi outside the Welsh House at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, June 1936.<\/p>\n

In 1931, King George V granted Royal Lodge to his son, Prince Albert, then the Duke of York (later King George VI) and his wife, Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth, the future Queen Mother). The couple, and their daughters Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret, used it as a country retreat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you will always call it The Royal Lodge, by which name it has been known ever since George IV built it,\u201d King George V wrote to his son, according to Sally Bedell Smith<\/a>. However, she notes, \u201cEveryone in the royal family disregarded George V\u2019s request and called it Royal Lodge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many photographs show the family at the home over the years:<\/p>\n

\"TheLisa Sheridan\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Royal family at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, 1940.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalLisa Sheridan\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The family at Royal Lodge in 1946.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalLisa Sheridan\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

George VI with the Royal Family.<\/p>\n

After her husband\u2019s death, the Queen Mother used the Royal Lodge as one of her country retreats. She died there on March 30, 2002.<\/p>\n

Prince Andrew moved into Royal Lodge in 2004.<\/p>\n

It has been his family\u2019s primary residence for the last two decades. Per Tatler<\/a>, Andrew \u201cmoved there from Sunninghill Park, a country estate bordering Windsor Great Park, in 2004 along with his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie<\/a> and, in 2008, Sarah Ferguson moved in.\u201d The property today has 30 rooms, a Chapel Lodge, six lodge cottages, and a gardener\u2019s cottage.<\/p>\n

Andrew stepped down as a working royal<\/a> in 2019 after an interview he gave surrounding allegations <\/a>that he had sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre. He paid her an undisclosed settlement in February 2022 after<\/a> she filed a civil suit in the United States<\/a>. Last week, he announced he would stop using his royal titles<\/a> amid the publication of Giuffre\u2019s posthumous memoir and new revelations surrounding his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There have been renewed calls for Andrew to move out of Royal Lodge. \u201cIt\u2019s about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life,\u201d Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC Radio 4 Today program. \u201cHe has disgraced himself, he has embarrassed the royal family time and again. I don\u2019t see why the taxpayer, frankly, should continue to foot the bill at all. The public are sick of him.\u201d When asked if Andrew should leave Royal Lodge, Jenrick said, \u201cI don\u2019t think the taxpayer in any way should be footing the bill for him to live in luxury homes ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Play\"Royal\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Emily Burack (she\/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Andrew\u2019s residence, Royal Lodge, has been in the news this week after it was revealed he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[14774,169857,1331,1381,5105,7710,519,448,169856],"class_list":{"0":"post-522907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-content-type-news-explainer","9":"tag-contentid-23d63471-9281-48d4-a837-d5078bc357d9","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-locale-us","12":"tag-royal","13":"tag-royal-families","14":"tag-royal-family","15":"tag-royals","16":"tag-shorttitle-what-to-know-about-royal-lodge"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115425148687755951","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}