King Charles and Queen Camilla to stay at Clarence House
Charles and Camilla will stay at Clarence House, leaving Buckingham Palace as a 369 million-pound ceremonial hub after a 10-year overhaul.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will continue living at Clarence House when Buckingham Palace’s 10-year refurbishment finishes next year, preserving the central London landmark as the monarchy’s ceremonial and operational center rather than the sovereign’s home. The renovation is now pegged at 369 million pounds, about $487 million, and the decision places the cost of modernizing the palace alongside a clear break in how the building will be used.
Buckingham Palace will no longer serve as the British monarch’s primary residence, ending nearly two centuries of that role. The palace has been the London home of every British monarch since Queen Victoria, and the building, which dates to the 1820s, contains 775 rooms. For generations it has functioned not only as a residence but also as office space for the royal bureaucracy and a venue for state dinners and other official functions.
Charles has lived at Clarence House since he was Prince of Wales, and palace officials said he and Camilla will keep working out of Buckingham Palace even though they will not move in. The refurbishment is part of a broader effort to increase public access to the historic building, which has sat at the center of royal life for almost 200 years. That makes the overhaul more than a maintenance project: it is a reordering of the palace’s place in the institution, with the building remaining a public-facing power center even as the monarch’s private household stays elsewhere.
The announcement came alongside an annual financial statement released Thursday that also detailed the king’s personal tax payments and the cost of royal trips. Together, the figures put Buckingham Palace’s expensive renewal in the same frame as the monarchy’s wider finances, showing how the institution is balancing heritage, public access and the use of taxpayer-backed resources while keeping its most visible headquarters separate from the king’s home.
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