Prince William and Kate Middleton have an unusual set-up at their exclusive Kensington Palace apartment.
In line with royal protocol, neither give interviews about their home life but it is widely known where their bedrooms are, which is very different to a typical flat. Rather than upstairs, the main bedroom the couple share is unusually on the ground floor of their apartment - 1A - while the upstairs is used mainly by their staff, reports Gloucestershire Live.
The Cambridges therefore live predominantly on the ground floor of the royal palace in London. 1A Kensington Palace isn’t your average apartment, though. Instead, it is a four-storey mansion featuring its own lift, gym and nine rooms just for the staff, reports OK.
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The property is understood to be ‘enormous’ all the way from the basement through to the attic. Explaining why it is referred to as an ‘apartment’ on True Royalty's Royal Beat, British royal author Christopher Warwick said: “All of these royal residences at Kensington Palace are called apartments, which of course makes people immediately think they are flats like the American term for an apartment.
“They are not. If you think of Kensington Place in a way, it is built around three courtyards. If you kind of think of them as being these wonderful red brick terrace houses. Because they are all joined, but separate houses.”
Meanwhile, royal author Ingrid Seward said: “It's enormous... and it's like a piece of countryside in London.” Apartment 1A is the Cambridges’ London base; however, they also have their Norfolk country home Anmer Hall, where the family quarantined during the UK lockdown.
During the lockdown, Kate offered another sneak peek behind the closed doors of the family’s Kensington Palace apartment. In photos published in Nursing Times, the Duchess of Cambridge can be seen conducting Zoom interviews in the living space of the royal home.
Kate used the space to record a video for the Nursing Now charity, for which she has been a patron of since 2018. More of the décor is shown in the two photos and the light and bright living room features a colourful yet traditional patterned rug.
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