Prince William and Kate Middleton’s London residence is Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace.The 20-room property was previously the home of Princess Margaret.It’s also next door to Apartments 8 and 9, where Princess Diana lived until her death in 1997.
Though Prince William and Kate Middleton have chosen Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park as their “forever home,” the couple still retain a place in one of London’s most famous properties: Kensington Palace. Most famously the home of Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister Princess Margaret, Apartment 1A is actually a four-story, 20-room residence.
Renovated once by the late princess in the mid-1960s and again by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2013, the inside of the “apartment” was seen most recently in 2016, when President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama paid a visit to the property. For royals fans, it was a rare peek at the private life of the future King and Queen of England; even Prince George, who was just two years old at the time, stayed up for the festivities.
Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince George, and Kate Middleton meeting with the Obamas in Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace.
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Elsewhere in Kensington Palace, Prince William and Prince Harry grew up in Apartments 8 and 9 with their mother Princess Diana, who lived there until her death in 1997. The home was subsequently transformed into an office for the brothers and currently serves as the headquarters for William and Kate’s charity work.
Ahead, here’s everything you need to know about the London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, who departed London for Windsor Home Park in 2022.
Apartment 1A was once the home of Princess Margaret.
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon with their children David and Sarah at Kensington Palace in 1964.
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Beginning with her marriage to Lord Snowdon in 1960, Princess Margaret lived in Apartment 1A for nearly 42 years. The home was previously occupied by Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise, and since her passing in 1939, it had fallen into disrepair. The newlyweds subsequently undertook a massive renovation project that resulted in a new, modern home in which to raise their two children, David and Sarah, who arrived in 1961 and 1964, respectively. In 2002, Princess Margaret died at nearby King Edward VII’s Hospital at the age of 71.
It was designed to feel like “an English country house.”
As for Princess Margaret’s design choices, royal historian Christopher Warwick supplied a description of the space after visiting her numerous times for his 2000 biography, Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts.
“I got to know Apartment 1A very well indeed. The best way to describe it, it was like walking into an English country house,” he once said, per the Daily Express. “It was very elegant, it had an 18th-century quality about it, and it was furnished with lovely antiques.”
Alongside those “lovely antiques” was one very special family heirloom: Pietro Annigoni’s “fabulous portrait” of the princess from 1957. According to Warwick, the painting hung on the wall opposite the front door.
Prince William and Kate Middleton moved there in 2013.
The Prince and Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace in 2016.
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Following their 2011 nuptials at Westminster Abbey, William and Kate relocated from Nottingham Cottage to Apartment 1A. The move happened in 2013 after renovations took place to modernize the home and rid it of asbestos. According to People, the total cost of the project was $7.2 million. A source meanwhile told the publication that the couple were “at pains to bear down on costs.” On that note, the newlyweds reportedly decorated their home with the help of IKEA furniture, per Vogue.
They moved out in 2022.
After nearly a decade at Kensington Palace, the Wales family left the city for Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park in 2022. The $2.3 million home is nestled in the picturesque Berkshire countryside and was built in 1831 for its eponym Queen Adelaide, per the Royal Collection Trust.
Though the four-bedroom cottage was a welcome respite from city life for the family of five, tragedy struck the British royals not long after William and Kate’s relocation. First, Queen Elizabeth II passed away in September 2022; two years later, both King Charles and Kate Middleton were diagnosed with cancer.
“Adelaide Cottage was a place of pain, suffering and sadness,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told People in December 2025. “After such rough times it’s perfectly understandable they would want a new place.”
Kensington Palace has been home to several other royals.
Princess Diana, Prince William, and Prince Harry at their home in Kensington Palace in 1985.
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Kensington Palace was purchased by King William III and Queen Mary II in 1689 and has housed dozens of members of the British royal family since then. In modern times, its most famous resident was arguably Princess Diana, who lived in Apartments 8 and 9 with then-Prince Charles and their two children, Prince William and Prince Harry. The late princess continued to live there following the ex-couple’s divorce until her tragic death in 1997.
As for Prince Harry, he returned to Kensington Palace as a young adult, staying first in a one-bedroom “bachelor pad” on the estate and later at Nottingham Cottage. He lived in the latter home with Meghan Markle until the couple moved to Frogmore Cottage in 2019. Their time there was short-lived, however, as they relocated to the U.S. in early 2020.