Kevin McCloud shares incredible insight into secret visit to 'modest' Buckingham Palace Private Apartments
Kevin McCloud had a right royal surprise when he visited Buckingham Palace 15 years ago. Joining HELLO! for an exclusive interview, the Grand Designs star revealed what happened when he met with the late Prince Philip in 2009.
“I interviewed him for an hour and a half, and he was completely fascinating. A brilliant and natural engineer who just loved things and the way things worked,” Kevin, 65, explained.
“He was interested in the kind of stuff that changed people's lives. When he first started the competition in 1959, the project that won that first year was a fridge and he saw that – and so did his design review panel – as a marker for the future.
“While I was there, we ended up waiting in a corridor outside the [late] Queen's apartment, and I just looked into a room, and it was the most beautiful thing,” Kevin continued. “It was a small room, and I think it was painted green and it had beautiful, polished, elegant, Regency mahogany furniture in it, and it was just very simple.
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“It was sort of lean and not at all flamboyant, not what you’d expect from the Queen. My memory of that little room is so strong and it made me realise in this huge palace, this vast place with massive roofs, here was this tiny apartment and it was a real statement of modesty.”
As the working headquarters of the Monarchy; Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip lived part-time in the Private Apartments on the north side of Buckingham Palace. It’s widely believed that the Private Apartments consist of at least 25 of the royal residence’s 775 rooms, boasting views of Constitution Hill.
Kevin, who began presenting Grand Designs in 1999, has certainly had a colourful career. In September, Channel 4 aired a special 25th anniversary episode, and this month he’s back in Birmingham to host Grand Designs Live.
“It can take up to 16 years to make one hour of television but the live show is what it says on the tin,” Kevin revealed. It's like reading a book and then going to see the movie or joining a club.
“We're all just design nerds. From the organisers to the exhibitors to the ladies handing out the programmes to everybody at the show, we're all just in the same thing together, sharing the same slightly nerdy passion. That's cool.”
Taking place from 2-6 October 2024, Grand Designs Live is a great opportunity for renovators, with live talks, and insights from Grand Designers from the past 25 years. “We have the Ask an Expert Centre, which is my favourite bit,” he added.
“We have dozens of interior designers and architects and engineers and financial people and specialists and mortgage brokers. They give up their time freely for the entire week, and you can just turn up. It’s good if when you buy your tickets on the website you book a slot because it helps time manage a bit better. But if they're free you can just walk in and talk to them.”
With years of experience under his belt, Kevin’s number one tip for renovators making a start is simple: “Beware the YouTube video!”
The father-of-four is currently working on his own home, a process which is gradually coming together. “I'm still doing it – repairing and rebuilding, altering, adding, but slowly making it work,” he noted.
“And that to me is magical because it's personal and private. To be able finally, in my life, and my older age, to be able to buy the shelving system that I've always wanted or to find that lovely second-hand coffee table, or an old 1940s chair that I hankered after all my life and have never been able to afford, or just to be able to put in an Ikea kitchen, which I've done. Whatever it is, with all these things to get it right eventually is just so lovely.”
Kevin McCloud was speaking ahead of Grand Designs Live at NEC Birmingham, the UK’s premier home and design exhibition, taking place from 2-6 October
