Mega basement plan for Kate and Wills’ Palace
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have 22 rooms and two kitchens in their lavishly refurbished Kensington Palace apartment, but do they need even more space for their expanding family?
Ahead of William and Kate’s move back to London in the autumn, I can reveal that plans are afoot to dig out an enormous two-storey basement underneath the Orangery in the grounds of Kensington Palace, to ‘free up the palace suites for the Royal Family’.
New planning documents show that some of the 100 staff working at Kensington Palace could move out of their offices in the palace into the 50m-long basement extension, which would also house a collection of ceremonial dress. In total, the development at the Grade 1-listed Orangery would provide more than 1,500 sq m of extra space over three floors: two below ground, and one above ground. Staff would be based on the upper level of the basement, which has lightwells to provide ‘light and air’.
The planning application submitted this week says: ‘The addition of a basement storey is required to allow for the accommodation of administration which must necessarily be moved out of rooms leased from the Royal Household in Kensington Palace.’
The application was submitted by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), the charity that looks after the state apartments at Kensington Palace.
When the charity tested the water for the basement plans last October, planners at the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council advised: ‘Indicative information could be provided on the existing numbers of HRP staff who need to be rehoused to free up the Palace suites for the Royal Family.’ Kensington Palace is certainly getting crowded. Princess Eugenie and her boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank, are moving in to Ivy Cottage later this year, once its reported damp problems are fixed.
Prince Harry has also entertained his actress girlfriend Meghan Markle at his bachelor pad at nearby Nottingham Cottage.
KP, as Princess Diana called it, is also home to Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
Two-storey basement extensions are usually in breach of Kensington & Chelsea Council’s basement policy — but it looks as though the palace’s plans will get the green light. Council documents say planners are ‘willing to make an exception’ for the royals.