Massive renovation planned at Kensington Palace to accommodate William and Kate moving in
The royals are coming -- and the house is getting an overhaul.
Prince William and Duchess Kate will be moving to London in the fall, into apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, once the Duke finishes his two-year job with the East Anglian Air Ambulance to take on more royal duties. And once the royal couple and their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, move in full time, the current residents of Kensington Palace will have to make some space.
See also: 10 little-known facts about Kensington Palace
As such, the Historic Royal Palaces have applied for a huge extension to the palace -- what the Daily Mail is calling an 'iceberg' basement. It's a two-story underground expansion, which will be dug below a new extension they want to build next to the Orangery on Palace grounds. The Orangery, described in the plans as an "elaborate greenhouse in the style of an elegant palace," will be revamped as well but will still accommodate its restaurant that is open to the public.
The massive two-story basement will be 165 feet long, and will make room for the royals and their staff to expand. In total, the new build will add 1,500 square meters of extra space over three floors and will be used for staff offices, storage, and a "ceremonial dress collection."
Such a massive extension is a rare one -- the Kensington and Chelsea council, which currently holds the application (and is expected to say yay or nay next month) has been restricting such massive basements as of late. They still approved a few hundred of these builds in 2016, but have cut back in response to the huge disruption the construction makes.
So first, William and Kate start building a massive hedge "fence" around the palace to block out their neighbors. And now they're potentially breaking ground for an enormous extension that is notoriously disruptive to build. Talk about neighborly!
But hey, if George and Charlotte need some extra space to play, we fully support it.
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Adorable photos of George and Charlotte:
