text="Cluster of outbuildings associated with Kensington Palace, including Nottingham Cottage" width=242 height=242 zoom=18 latitude=51.50582 longitude=-0.1887/> Nottingham Cottage is a house in the grounds of Kensington Palace in London. As a grace-and-favour property, the house has been frequently occupied by members of the British royal family, as well as staff and employees.
Design and location
Nottingham Cottage has two bedrooms and two reception rooms, with a bathroom and small garden. It is in size. It stands near two other grace-and-favour houses, Kent Cottage and Wren Cottage. The house was designed by Christopher Wren. Its name derives from Nottingham House, the residence of the Earl of Nottingham from which Kensington Palace was expanded by William III and Mary II.
Occupants
Nottingham Cottage has been occupied by several people who were formerly employees of the British royal family. Upon her retirement in 1948, the house was given for life to Marion Crawford, the former governess of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. In gratitude for Crawford's service, Queen Mary, the princesses' grandmother, decorated the house with Victorian furniture and prints of flowers for her. Crawford described the house as a dream "of seasoned red brick...with roses round the door". Crawford left the cottage in 1950 in the aftermath of her selling stories about the royal family to newspapers. Her departure from the cottage was made public knowledge by John Gordon, the editor and chief columnist of The Sunday Express, in the newspaper's Hardcastle column in an attempt to pressure her to provide more stories and articles to him. Before Crawford, Nottingham Cottage had been home to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and his wife, Princess Alice. Later occupants included Sir Miles Hunt-Davis and his wife Anita, Lady Hunt-Davis, and Robert Fellowes and his wife Lady Jane Fellowes. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, lived at Nottingham Cottage for two and a half years after leaving Anglesey, where Prince William had been stationed as a helicopter pilot. The couple lived there with the infant Prince George for a few months after his birth, before moving in October 2013 to Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace. The ceilings of the home are very low, and Prince William had to stoop to avoid hitting his head on them. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger brother of Prince William, moved into the house following his brother's departure. Harry proposed to Meghan Markle whilst roasting a chicken in the home. After their wedding in May 2018, the couple continued living at the house. In November 2018, it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would move from Nottingham Cottage to Frogmore Cottage in spring 2019, before the birth of their first child.
