Is romantic cottage Queen’s gift to newlyweds?
IT WAS once home to Princess Margaret’s lover Group Captain Peter Townsend.
Now Adelaide Cottage, nestled in the heart of the Home Park in Windsor, is set to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
According to a source, the Queen has offered the Grade II listed property to the newlyweds as a gift. The source claimed that the couple had been for a viewing, liked it and will move in soon. Last night Kensington Palace declined to comment.
Built in 1831 as a retreat for William IV’s wife Queen Adelaide, it has been home to royal dignitaries and courtiers, most recently Simon Rhodes, son of the Queen’s cousin and best
friend Margaret Rhodes, who died in 2016. But Group Capt Townsend – equerry to King George VI when he and his wife Rosie Marchioness Camden were given the grace-and favour property in 1945 – is its best-known former resident.
Soon after the couple’s divorce in 1952, his doomed romance with Princess Margaret became public.
Adelaide Cottage, which was renovated in 2015, is described as ‘picturesque’ by the heritage organisation Historic England.
It says the main bedroom in the generously sized cottage boasts a coved ceiling with gilded dolphins and rope ornament from a 19th Century royal yacht.
There is also a marble Graeco Egyptian fireplace.
Offering quick access to London, the secluded property is close to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s private apartments and only a few kilometres from the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park, which Harry regularly visits.
The source added: ‘There are seven gated entrances and exits to Windsor Castle so the newlyweds could come and go without worrying about being photographed.’