The Renovations to Frogmore Cottage, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's New Home, Cost $3.05 Million in Public Funds
Earlier this year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved out of their apartment at Kensington Palace and into a new home called Frogmore Cottage. It wasn't a simple move from London to Windsor though: the property, which was configured as five apartments in “poor condition,” had to undergo a thorough renovation to be ready for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their new baby, Archie Harrison.
Now, for the first time, we know the cost of that transformation: at least £2.4 million ($3.05 million).
The figure was revealed today as part of the report on the Sovereign Grant, funds the Queen receives from the British Government to support her official duties and maintain occupied royal palaces. The royal household's annual financial statement is made public after the end of the UK's fiscal year in March. While £2.4 million of structural work on Frogmore was paid for with the public funds, Harry and Meghan paid for their own furniture and interior decoration.
By comparison, in 2014 the Sovereign Grant report revealed that £4.5 million in public funds had been spent renovating Kensington Palace apartment 1A for Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and their family.
The news that Harry and Meghan would move to Frogmore cottage, which is next to Windsor Castle, was made public in November 2018, but the report on the Sovereign Grant also contains some of the first concrete details we have about the renovation.
“The scheme consisted of the reconfiguration and full refurbishment of five residential units in poor condition to create the official residence for The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their family,” the report states.
The Queen’s Treasurer, Sir Michael Stevens-also known as the Keeper of the Privy Purse-told reporters that “the building was returned to a single residence, and outdated infrastructure was replaced to guarantee the long-term future of the property. Substantially all fixtures and fittings were paid for by their royal highnesses.”
Reports of a yoga studio on the property are incorrect, and the only "floating floor" (the source of additional rumors) was a specific requirement from the planners and involves the main kitchen area. Builders were not able to remove an existing floor, so they laid timber on top of the old floor.
Palace sources said that the major work undertaken included the removal and replacement of defective ceiling beams and defective floor joists. A source described the heating systems as “outdated and inefficient” and not up to modern environmental standards and said that the electrical system needed to be replaced and rewired. New gas and water mains also had to be introduced. Work began after the couple chose the property sometime early last fall.
When it comes to design elements like kitchen appliances, the public purse would cover a certain amount but if Harry and Meghan wanted something that exceeded that number, they would have covered that additional cost themselves.
Stevens said that Frogmore Cottage, which was initially constructed in the mid-1800s as a single dwelling, had already been earmarked for renovation in keeping with the Queen's broad “responsibility to maintain the condition of the occupied royal palaces of state.” There is apparently a small amount of work that still remains to be done on the property.
The report revealed that the Queen received a total of £82.2 million from the Treasury for the last financial year, which was split between a £49.3 million core grant and an additional amount of £32.9 million for the renovation of Buckingham Palace. That's a massive, 10-year project to bring the palace's antiquated systems up to date.
Stevens said the cost to the British public for the core Sovereign Grant amounted to 74p per person in the UK and the cost for the core grant plus the additional amount for resurfacing amounted to £1.24 per person. The report also showed that the royal family spent a total of £4.6 million ($5.85 million) on travel for official overseas visits from April 2018 to March 2019.
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