Sandringham House and Estate have been owned by the Royal Family for over a century and yet it’s one of the most private of all their magnificent residences.
The Royal Family might not generally state their favourite royal residences, but Sandringham House is understood to have held a special place in the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s hearts - and likely of their nearest and dearest. Nestled amid rolling countryside, Sandringham House and the wider Sandringham Estate is the perfect retreat and the house is one of the most private of the royal homes. Privately owned by King Charles and expected to be passed to Prince William one day, Sandringham House is where the Royal Family come together at Christmas and it’s likely this sweet tradition will continue for many years to come.
However, despite being a very iconic royal home not many glimpses inside have been shared and here we reveal where Sandringham House is, if it's open to the public and whether Prince William has a home there.
Where is Sandringham House?
Sandringham House is in Norfolk in the Norfolk Coastal Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is located on the Sandringham Estate. The huge estate includes the residents and communities of many villages and hamlets in the area, including Anmer, Babingley, Sandringham, Shernbourne and Wolferton. As per the Sandringham website Estate lets residential properties in 13 villages to people living and working locally and it’s also the site of Wood Farm where the late Prince Philip spent a lot of time after his retirement in 2017.
Sandringham House is the royal-owned residence on the Estate and has belonged to members of the British Royal Family since 1962 when Queen Victoria purchased the estate for her son Prince Albert (later known as King Edward VII). Sandringham’s history goes back far further and there is evidence on the present site of Sandringham House in 1296, whilst prehistoric flint tools have been found in the local area.
Sandringham was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sant Dersingham". This reportedly means the sandy part of Dersingham which was later shortened to its current name.
Since Queen Victoria bought Sandringham estate for her eldest son it has undergone changes, with the main part of Sandringham House being built in 1870. A ballroom was added by 1883 and in the 1890s new accommodation for both guests and members of staff was added. It has remained a royal residence that is close to the hearts of the Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather King George V once wrote that "dear old Sandringham" was the place he loved "better than anywhere else in the world".
Is Sandringham House open to the public?
Unlike where Duchess Sophie and Prince Edward live at Bagshot Park, Sandringham House is open to the public and people can enjoy walking round both the house and its gorgeous grounds at certain times of year. Whilst the gardens were opened back in 1908 by King Edward VII, Sandringham House itself was first opened to visitors in 1977 for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. This might be considered unusual by some, as Sandringham House is one of the few royal residences that is privately owned by the royals and not by the Crown Estate.
However Sandringham is a working estate that is focused upon conservation and stewardship, with a desire to protect the land and buildings for generations to come. According to Sandringham’s official website, Sandringham House and Gardens will re-open to visitors in spring 2025, as will the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the estate. It is this church where the Royal Family attend services during the Christmas period, including the Christmas morning service which they all walk to together, watched by excited fans lining the route.
Tickets will be available to book for 2025 from December 2024, although anyone who wants to visit the Sandringham Parkland and Courtyard facilities don’t require a ticket and can visit now.
Who lives at Sandringham House?
No-one permanently lives at Sandringham House and this is the case with the majority of royal residences, though it is a home which the Royal Family famously gather at for Christmas. During the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, she traditionally hosted the festivities in Norfolk and we’ve regularly seen most of the immediate and some of the extended Royal Family members walk to church on Christmas Day together over the years.
When Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip spent Christmas "quietly" at Windsor Castle during the pandemic in 2020 this marked the first time they hadn’t marked the festive season in Norfolk in 32 years.
Since his beloved mother passed away in 2022, King Charles has continued to uphold this tradition and we would expect him to do so again for Christmas this December. Sandringham House’s connection to Christmas doesn’t stop at just being the venue for the celebrations, though. It was here in 1957 that Queen Elizabeth made her first ever televised Christmas broadcast - something that later became another iconic part of not only her reign, but of the Christmas period for households across the UK who watched her deliver her message.
Although she didn’t film it here every year, often choosing Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle instead, it remains a special part of Sandringham House’s history. Outside of Christmas, Queen Elizabeth used to extend her stay at Sandringham House until mid-February as she marked the anniversary of her father King George VI’s death there privately every year.
King Charles has also spent time at Sandringham at various times of year during his reign and has been pictured attending church services at the Church of St Mary Magdalene. Most recently, His Majesty attended a service on 3rd November, as well as in July, and also in February 2024, shortly after the announcement was made by Buckingham Palace that he had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment.
How many rooms are there at Sandringham House?
Given that only certain parts of Sandringham House are open to the public, it isn’t known exactly how many rooms there are at Sandringham House, but it’s been suggested by Visit Norfolk that it has an estimated 100-200 rooms in total. Visitors are only able to see eight of the ground floor rooms from March-October and these are said to have barely changed since Edwardian times. Whatever the exact number, though, this royal home used to have far more.
As revealed by the Sandringham website, over 100 rooms at Sandringham House were demolished in the service wing to remove dry rot, as well as to reduce heating costs and move the kitchens closer to the Dining Room. Sandringham House was also apparently one of the first houses in the country to have showers and there’s also a Ballroom there which was built in 1883.
Does Prince William have a house at Sandringham?
Prince William doesn’t live at Sandringham, but he does have a house on the Sandringham Estate - Anmer Hall, which is around a five minute drive from Sandringham House. He and the Princess of Wales are said to have received this as a belated wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth and they made it their full-time home from 2015-2017 when the Prince of Wales was working with the East Anglian Air Ambulance Service.
Before moving in, it’s been claimed that the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Norfolk home underwent substantial renovations, which allegedly included adding a new kitchen, a conservatory, new roof and redecorating inside.
They lived permanently at Anmer Hall until September 2017 when they became full-time working royals and relocated to Kensington Palace. They split their time between the Palace whilst their children were at school and nursery and Norfolk in the school holidays. In 2022, Prince William and Kate once again moved - this time to Adelaide Cottage in Berkshire. This is on the Windsor Estate and is also close to the Middleton family’s home, but they’re believed to still spend plenty of time at Anmer Hall.
Speaking previously on the BBC documentary, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, Prince William described Norfolk as feeling like "home" to both him and Kate and reflected upon how important Sandringham was to his grandfather, who managed the estate for decades.
"Sandringham has always been a really, really important part of his life. He was tasked with being the warden, managing the estate from 1952. I think for him, being up here, was an escape," Prince William explained. "He's planted over 40 kilometres of hedge land, 45 woods, over two million trees. These things really matter to the makeup of the surrounding area."
The future King added, "For me, coming here and now living here, everything that he's done has led up to Catherine and I feeling that this is a part of the country we want to be in. We love this area, it feels like home, and that's because of what he's created."
