In 2022, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their three children decamped from London to Windsor, moving into Adelaide Cottage. Less than three years later, the Daily Mail is reporting that the Wales family could be trading their historic home for a grander mansion: Fort Belvedere. The house, built in the 18th century, is located in Windsor Great Park. Fort Belvedere was famously once home to King Edward VIII, who lived there before he became king and after he abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson.
Here’s what to know about Fort Belvedere:
It’s centuries old.
Constructed in the 1820s, Fort Belvedere was originally called Shrubs Hill Tower. It was designed by English architect Jeffry Wyattville—who was also responsible for rebuilding Windsor Castle.
During her reign, Queen Victoria used Fort Belvedere as a tea house, and in the 1860s, it opened to the public.
King Edward VIII lived there.
In 1929, Prince Edward, then the Prince of Wales, moved in. His father King George V reportedly was surprised his son wanted to live there, but agreed to give him the house. Edward would later write in his memoirs that at Fort Belvedere, he “created a home at the fort just as my father and grandfather had created one at Sandringham… here I spent some of the happiest days of my life.” Of the fort, he wrote, “By the time I came upon it, it had become a pseudo-Gothic hodge-podge. A profusion of yew trees kept one side of the house in perpetual shadow, staining the wall with green acidulous mould. But the half-buried beauty of the place leaped to my eye.”
It was at Fort Belvedere where Edward began seeing Wallis Simpson. In 1936, Wallis moved into Fort Belvedere, and it was at the property in December 1936 where King Edward VIII signed his abdication papers.
After Edward abdicated, the fort went unoccupied for two decades. Gerald Lascelles, the grandson of George V and a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth, moved into the property in 1955. Lascelles and his wife put the lease up for sale in 1976.
Canadian billionaire Galen Weston leased it from the Crown Estate in the early 1980s.
In the early 1980s, Galen Weston acquired the lease, and moved into Fort Belvedere with his wife, Hilary. Though Galen died in 2021, the Weston family still lives there, and still holds the lease.
Fort Belvedere is set on 59 acres of grounds.
It has an outdoor swimming pol and tennis court.
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