Kensington Palace: Who Calls the Historic Estate Home Today

Kensington Palace remains a living, working home for a rotating roster of the royal family, a status that contrasts with its better-known neighbor Buckingham Palace. The 17th-century estate has housed royals since 1689, when William III purchased Nottingham House and had it expanded into the palace seen today. While King George II’s death in 1760 marked a shift in royal preference away from Kensington, the palace’s central London location has kept it a practical base for several members of the royal family in recent decades. Though Buckingham Palace often dominates headlines, Kensington Palace continues to function as a residence, a venue for official business and a home with multiple tenants across its grounds.

Today, the palace comprises multiple apartments and surrounding cottages, each linked to different members of the royal family and used for official duties, private living, or family life. A review of the palace’s current residents reveals a mix of long-standing occupants and newer arrangements that reflect both tradition and modern family needs.

Apartment 1A is the residence most closely associated with the Prince and Princess of Wales. Prince William and Catherine retain use of the four-floor, 300-year-old space for official business, even as they are set to move into the Forest Lodge later this year. The setup includes multiple reception rooms, staff bedrooms, and a gym, with the couple having renovated the interior after their 2011 wedding. The interior design was led by Ben Pentreath, whose work has attracted a high-profile clientele. Famous guests have been hosted there, including Barack and Michelle Obama during their 2016 visit to the palace. During the Covid-19 pandemic, William and Kate conducted official business remotely from Kensington Palace, offering a rare, intimate glimpse into their private quarters through family photos and Kate’s collection of Penguin Clothbound Classic books. The couple moved out in 2022, with reports that the move was intended to provide George, Charlotte, and Louis with a more normal upbringing.

Not far to the north, Wren House is home to Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, and his wife Katharine Worsley, the Duchess of Kent. The cottage, named for Sir Christopher Wren, features five bedrooms and five reception rooms, and it offers expansive views of the palace’s walled garden. The couple appeared publicly in recent years in a Royal Family video marking the Duke of Kent’s 89th birthday, a clip that highlighted the property’s front garden and white picket fence. The duchess’ death at age 92 earlier this month has drawn renewed attention to Wren House as part of the palace’s living history.

Ivy Cottage, one of the smallest properties on the grounds, is home to Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. The three-bedroom residence accommodates their young family, including their two sons, August and Ernest. Despite its modest size, Ivy Cottage is celebrated for its picturesque charm, with roses around the door and a neatly kept garden. The couple has reportedly split their time between Ivy Cottage and Portugal, where Jack is involved in a development project, reflecting a modern approach to balancing royal duties with global family life.

Inside the main palace, Apartment 10 houses Prince Michael of Kent and his wife Marie Christine von Reibnitz. The couple have lived in the five-bedroom, multi-reception residence for about four decades, dating back to the 1970s. The Kents’ occupancy has been the subject of public scrutiny; in 2002 it was disclosed that they paid £69 per week for the home, a sum that later rose to roughly £120,000 per year from 2010 onward as maintenance and occupancy costs grew.

The Old Stables, toward the back of the grounds, became the home of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in 2019. They moved there after decades in Apartment 1, which had housed them for more than 40 years. The Old Stables were renovated at a cost of about £1 million and now provide a separate, more secluded living space for the couple, who are tasked with royal duties and charitable engagements as part of the extended family network.

Nottingham Cottage has a well-known place in contemporary royal life as the first Kensington Palace home for Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, during their early years as working royals. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom residence offered modest space by royal standards and provided access to all of Kensington Palace’s amenities. Public commentary on their time there included descriptions of the cottage as a “hovel” by Harry and jealousy arising from Kate’s larger apartment, a portrayal amplified by some royal commentators and later discussed in their Netflix series. The couple later moved to Frogmore Cottage at Windsor Castle, but their time at Nottingham Cottage remains a notable chapter in the palace’s modern history.

Apartment 8 and 9 sit on the opposite side of Kensington Palace from 1A and were the home of Prince Charles and Princess Diana after their 1981 marriage. The couple settled into these quarters as their primary residence during the early years of their marriage and raising Prince William. Diana grew fond of the palace life there, and the suites remained her base even after the couple’s separation and divorce. Since then, the apartments have been repurposed and are now used as office space to entertain various charities and nonprofit initiatives associated with the royal family.

The story of Apartment 1A also includes a link to Princess Margaret. Before William and Kate moved in, the late princess and her husband Antony Armstrong-Jones used Apartment 1A as their home. The Queen gifted the apartment to Margaret and Lord Snowdon following their wedding in 1960, and it underwent a £1.7 million renovation. After the renovations were completed in 1963, Margaret and her family continued to reside there even after her divorce, making 1A a fixture in the life of one of the royals who most shaped Kensington Palace’s mid-20th-century identity.

The dwelling patterns at Kensington Palace thus reflect a blend of enduring tradition and flexible modern living. Apartments and cottages across the grounds accommodate a rotating cast of royals—each bringing their own rhythms to a palace that has served the crown for centuries. The result is a living museum of royal life in the heart of London, where official duties, private life, and the responsibilities of public service continue to intertwine against the backdrop of a centuries-old estate.