Prince William and his wife Catherine have chosen an apartment in Kensington Palace as their London residence, royal officials said yesterday.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, whose April wedding was watched around the globe, are to move into Apartment 1A — the former home of the late Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II’s sister, in middle to late-2013, their St James’ Palace office said.
REPAIRS
They will not be able to make the move for two years as structural repairs must first be completed.
At the moment their London base, Nottingham Cottage, is already in the palace grounds, but the move will take them into the grander surroundings of Kensington Palace itself.
The move is a return for William, 29, to his childhood home — Apartment 8 of the palace was the main residence Diana, Princess of Wales, and William and his brother Prince Harry, 27, lived there until 1998.
Mourners left a sea of flowers and tributes at the gates of the 17th-century palace after the death of Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997.
William and Catherine, also 29, are mainly based on the island of Anglesey in northwest Wales at the moment, where the prince is a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot.
Harry will take over Nottingham Cottage when his brother and sister-in-law move into the palace proper.
The trio’s offices will also move with them from their current location at St James’ Palace.
The queen and William’s father Prince Charles have approved the moves.
Anyone fancying a peek at William and Catherine’s apartment has the chance to see a section of it, which is being used for a public exhibition until September next year.
The rest of the apartment is currently used as offices, classrooms and for storage by Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and several other buildings.
“The extent of the work needed to turn the apartment back into a home is not yet known,” St James’ Palace said in a statement, which added it was currently uninhabitable.
Work was needed to remove asbestos as well as on the heating systems and electrics, it said.
FAMILY QUARTERS
It was last lived in by Margaret, who died in 2002. The last major renovation took place before she and her husband Antony Armstrong-Jones, the Earl of Snowdon, moved in in 1960 after their marriage.
William and Catherine will have plenty of royal company nearby, as three of the queen’s cousins, all grandsons of King George V, live at the palace.
Additional reporting by staff writerwriter
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese