Kensington Palace isn’t just for its royal residents. Like Buckingham Palace, the complex is open to the public. This means that five days out of the week anyone can purchase a ticket to the see the opulent Cupola Room, the famous King’s Staircase, and more lavish spaces. Except for a few select wings that is.
That is because Kensington still functions as an active royal residence. This means that at any given time members of the royal family could be living on Kensington’s grounds—working, lounging, and using the historic palace as their personal home. Though these private residences are generally cordoned off from the public, we do get the occasional glimpse into these interiors. Below, we break down all the private, rarely seen royal residences of Kensington—including who lives where and what the spaces look like.
Apartment 1A
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The exterior of Kensington’s Apartment 1A.
Apartment 1A of Kensington Palace is a bit of a misnomer, given the home is less apartment and more of a historic mansion. With four-floors and 20 rooms, it’s one of the larger private residences at the palace. The spacious structure currently serves as the official London residence of Prince William and Princess Kate (though the Waleses primarily live with their children at Forest Lodge in Windsor). The couple moved into the space around 2013, following the birth of their first son, Prince George.
Apartment 1A was previously home to Princess Margaret, who lived there until her death in 2002. The space was then used as an office for about a decade. It underwent an extensive renovation that cost more than $7 million before Will and Kate moved in in 2013. Kate worked alongside designer Ben Pentreath to fashion the home’s interiors, which her brother-in-law Prince Harry described as “magnificent” and “museum”-like in his memoir Spare. The public got only a few glimpses inside over the years, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Prince and Princess made royal appearances via Zoom, and following a 2016 visit from the Obamas. These images reveals an elegantly restrained home full of soothing creams, floral prints, and antique silhouettes.
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Barack and Michelle Obama sit with Prince William, Prince Harry, and Princess Kate inside Kensington’s Apartment 1A.
“The entrance hall is beautiful with intricate cornicing and huge black and white flagstones. There are large open fireplaces in all the main entertaining rooms and lovely big windows overlooking the garden,” an insider source told E! News of the space in 2013. “It doesn’t feel like a palace, more just a lovely townhouse.”
Apartment 1
Not to be confused with Apartment 1A, Apartment 1 of Kensington Palace sits right next to Prince William and Princess Kate’s home and is nearly as expansive. Boasting 21 rooms, the apartment was previously home to Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin, Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte van Deurs, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, along with their three children. In 2019, after over 40 years of calling the Kensington apartment home, the family moved out of Apartment 1 and migrated to the Old Stables, also on the Kensington property.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were briefly in talks to take up residence in the apartment, but the couple ultimately selected Frogmore Cottage for their growing family before they ultimately stepped back from royal duties entirely.
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Princess Diana sitting on a couch in her sitting room with her Lady-in-waiting Anne Beckwith-Smith.
Apartments 8 and 9
When Princess Diana moved into Kensington Palace, she didn’t occupy just one apartment. She had two. Apartments 8 and 9 of Kensington Palace were famously combined for the late Princess and her husband, Prince Charles, following their 1981 marriage. It was here the couple raised their children, Harry and William—and the interiors can often be seen in the background of family photos and images of the Princess.
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A playroom in Diana’s Kensington home.
While Kate’s Apartment 1A is a demonstration of restrained elegance, Diana’s three-floor abode emulated girlish whimsy. According to Veranda, the Princess hired interior designer Dudley Poplak to craft a home that reflected the space’s historic, 17th century origins while also balancing Diana’s own personal style. She didn’t shy away from bursts of personality—whether it was with rosy upholstery, ruffled curtains, or patterned wallpaper. Diana loved the space so much, she continued to live in the apartment following her separation from Prince Charles. The apartments have since been split back up into separate units, which are currently unoccupied.
Apartment 10
This five-bedroom space also boasts five reception rooms and serves as the home of Prince Michael of Kent, another of Queen Elizabeth’s first cousins. According to Hello magazine, Prince Michael and his wife Marie Christine von Reibnitz have lived in the apartment since the ‘70s, and were even neighbors to Princess Diana when she lived in the combined apartments 8 and 9. The Prince and Princess’s residence in the apartment was the subject of headlines in 2000s, when it came to light that Queen Elizabeth was covering the couple’s £120,000 rent. The couple also retired from public duties in 2022.
The Old Stables
Don’t let the name fool you—you won’t find any horses in these stables. These days, it’s actually home to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte van Deurs. The couple relocated to the Stables after downsizing from their previous abode in Kensington’s Apartment 1, where they were neighbors with Prince William and Princess Kate. The pair have offered a few insights to the space, including a video of Prince Richard taking a call in front of an expansive book collection and a photo of Birgitte in a bright turquoise sitting room.
Nottingham Cottage
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Outside of Nottingham Cottage.
Also known as “Nott Cott,” this modest two-bedroom house is perhaps best known as the first home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Though Kensington Palace offers its fair share of grandeur, Nott Cott is far more modest by comparison. The spot is a “grace-and-favour” property, meaning it’s owned by the Crown and therefore offered to residents for no cost of rent. The 1,300-square-foot dwelling was originally constructed in the 17th century by Sir Christopher Wren and has all the trappings of a cozy cottage space—low-slung ceilings, intimate living areas, and even a “slight lean” as Harry described it in the couple’s Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan. House and Garden described the interiors in 2023 as a combination of “contemporary comforts” and “traditional themes,” as seen in the cream-striped wallpaper in the living room and serenely neutral furniture selection.
Nott Cott is where Harry and Meghan got engaged—in the kitchen while roasting a chicken, per House and Garden—and also subsequently announced their engagement, before the pair eventually moved to Frogmore Cottage.
Wren House
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Prince Michael of Kent and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, outside the Wren House.
Another one of Christopher Wren’s buildings, Wren House also functions as a “grace-and-favour” property for the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince Edward and his late wife Katharine. The two moved into the two-story, five-bedroom home in 1997, and lived there together until Katharine’s passing in September 2025. The Prince still lives at Wren House.
Ivy Cottage
Located not too far from Nott Cott, Princess Eugenie occasionally resides with her family in this quaint “grace-and-favour” property. Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, first moved into the space in 2018, after the cottage underwent extensive renovations, per Realtor.com. They also briefly lived in Frogmore Cottage, but ultimately left after Brooksbank’s career took the two and their burgeoning family to Portugal. They now split their time between the U.K. and Portugal, with Ivy Cottage serving as their English home base.
The exterior of the home is precisely what you’d expect from an English cottage: white picket fence, low hanging roof, roses twining up the side, and a sturdy brick facade punctuated with pristine white windows. There’s even a garden the Princess frequently posts photos of. However the royal couple might not remain at Ivy for much longer. They recently announced Eugenie’s third pregnancy, which might mean the family has outgrown the home—which has only has three bedrooms, according to Realtor.com. Only time will tell which new royal might move in.