Could This Be Prince Andrew’s New Home? Inside Frogmore Cottage

It seems that William and Kate aren’t the only royals relocating. With the scandal around Prince Andrew forcing him to relinquish his titles and his home (currently the 30-room Royal Lodge), the disgraced royal has promised he will move out on one condition: he gets Frogmore Cottage in return.

Having once scorned Meghan and Harry’s former home as ‘not grand enough’, the Duke of York (for now) is now itching to get inside. But which other royal residents have called the quaint abode home? Here’s everything you need to know about Frogmore Cottage. 

Chatham House, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Brief History Of Frogmore Cottage

Adjoined to the grander Frogmore House, this larger of the two properties was built in the 1600s but only received Royal Residence status in 1792 when Queen Charlotte – of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story fame – purchased the lease. Meanwhile the smaller Frogmore Cottage was brought into existence in 1801 at the cost of £450 (around £50,000 today).

Originally a retreat from the stresses of court life (and her husband’s declining health) for the Queen and her unmarried daughters, the home was granted its cottage title – in spite of its then 10 bedrooms – as per the contemporary fashion for the rich to build large, secluded homes under the guise of a rural cottage.

Sitting on the 33-acre grounds of Frogmore estate, where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s mausoleum lies, the cottage is only half a mile from Windsor Castle in Home Park, Berkshire. Originally known as the Double Garden Cottage, the home was inadvertently christened by Queen Victoria, when after breakfasting at the estate she noted an ‘immense number of little frogs’ which she found ‘quite disgusting’. 

Since then, a string of royals have lived in the property, including Queen Victoria’s mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, King George V and Queen Mary. Other historic figures to have called Frogmore cottage home include a young Henry James, who lived there from 1840-1845 while his theologian father Henry James Sr took up temporary residence in the UK. His occupation was followed in 1897 by Queen Victoria’s personal secretary Abdul Karim (of the Judie Dench film Victoria & Abdul) who moved there with his wife and father. One of two Indians selected to become servants to the Queen, he was granted the title Munshi (meaning teacher) and was bestowed multiple honours and gifts by the Queen, including Frogmore Cottage, an attention which was looked down upon by the palace. Refurbishing Frogmore Cottage, and living there until Victoria’s death in 1901, her son King Edward VII banished Karum back to India for the last years of his life. 

The next royal resident was Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (the lost Princess Anastasia’s aunt) following her exile from Russia during the revolution. In 1925 she and her family were put up at Frogmore Cottage by the King, but the family’s bleak financial situation meant that the house soon began to fall into disrepair with the refurbishment eventually paid for by His Majesty. Following the death of King Edward VII, his son King Edward VIII gave Xenia and her family a new home in Wilderness House in the grounds of Hampton Court. 

Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

Recent History

By the early 21st century, Frogmore Cottage had been transformed into a series of five separate units used to house workers on Windsor estate. However, in 2019 fate turned for the royal residence when Harry and Meghan were gifted the home by Queen Elizabeth II. Receiving a £2.4m Sovereign Grant, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex converted the former 10-bedroom cottage into a four bedroom home. Sparking a media storm about this indulgent use of tax money, the couple eventually repaid the grant when they stepped down as senior working royals.

Pre-Megxit, the refurb included two orangeries, a vegetable garden, a yoga studio and extensive soundproofing against the roar of planes journeying to and from Heathrow Airport, the latter alone reportedly costing Meghan and Harry £50,000 out of their own purse. When it came to interior design, the couple put their trust in the interiors mastermind behind Soho Farmhouse, Vicky Charles of Charles & Co who counts the Clooneys and the Beckhams among her clients.

Following Meghan and Harry’s move to California, Prince Andrew’s youngest daughter Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank took up residence in Frogmore Cottage in November 2020. However, this was put to an end when Meghan and Harry expressed a desire to renew their occupier license in February 2022 in a bid to remain legally domiciled in the UK. Meghan and Harry spent some time in Frogmore Cottage during the summer of 2022 while preparing for their European tour, attending the Queen’s platinum jubilee and celebrating Lilibet’s first birthday while based there.

Since Eugenie vacated the property in May 2022 – having temporarily relocated to Ivy Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace during Meghan and Harry’s visit – Frogmore Cottage has stood empty. While Prince Andrew had previously been offered the cottage in exchange for the Royal Lodge in 2023, he reportedly retorted that the cottage was ‘not grand enough for him’. Oh, how times have changed.