It took her 60 years. Queen Elizabeth, who never wanted to move into Buckingham Palace
in the first place, has finally put her foot down. The British monarch has left the palace,
and she probably won't be moving back.
Buckingham Palace has a long history of maintenance issues, which makes sense, considering the
age of the structure. The core building of the palace dates back to 1703. In 2001, the
BBC reported mice infestations, although palace staff insisted, quote, "the ratio of mice
to men" was very low.
In 2007, a crumbling piece of the palace fell and almost wrecked Princess Anne's car. And
in 2015, a "significant amount" of asbestos had to be removed from the basement.
In 1953, when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip moved from their family home to Buckingham
Palace, they cried. That's according to royal biographer Penny Junor, who talked to Philip's
former butler, who was in the car with them during the move.
Now, another royal butler has spoken. Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell told the
Australian morning show Sunrise in April 2021 that he thinks the queen will never go back
to Buckingham Palace, and will instead make Windsor Castle her permanent home.
"So, you don't think she'll go back to Buckingham Palace? That she will just stay at Windsor
Castle for the rest of her life?"
"I do."
Burrell's theory lines up with what many gossip columns have been speculating. Thankfully,
if true, the British monarch won't have to do much moving. She started the process, out
of necessity, in 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to People magazine.
There are likely several reasons that Queen Elizabeth probably prefers to spend the remainder
of her days at Windsor Castle, beginning with the fact it's never been her primary place
of work. While the queen is still a working royal, she is also 95 years old. Queen Elizabeth
and Prince Philip used to spend weekends, Easters, and a week in June at the residence
every year according to the royal family's official website. Now, at Windsor, the queen
will be closer to her late husband and father, both of whom are currently buried there.
Windsor Castle might be 1,000 rooms large, but it's also full of intimate memories. It
was there that Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret were sent during World War II to
stay safe from the air raids. Their parents remained at Buckingham.
When she was 18 and still living at Windsor, Elizabeth convinced the king that it was a
good idea for her to train to be a driver and mechanic during World War II. It was also
at Windsor that she, in 1950, began a corgi breeding program. Anybody who knows Her Majesty
knows that being around corgis makes her feel like a million bucks.
Back in 2021, like the rest of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, Queen Elizabeth discovered
the magic of virtual meetings. Case in point? The royal family recently tweeted out photos
of the Queen meeting with ambassadors from Romania and The Dominican Republic. The ambassadors
went to Buckingham, as usual, but were greeted by a computer screen with a video link. The
queen received them from the comforts of Windsor.
Hello! magazine speculates that the British monarch will return to the palace periodically
for meetings that can't be conducted virtually. But there's another reason Her Majesty will
likely not live at Buckingham Palace again. At long last, she's allowing Prince Charles
and Prince William to lend her a hand.
The 95-year-old monarch has been slowly sharing duties with Charles since 2014, according
to CBS. The Sun, meanwhile, suggests that before he died, Philip met with Charles to
lay a roadmap for the king-to-be to ease the queen's official workload a bit more.
When Charles becomes king, he might not move into Buckingham Palace, either. In 2017, an
insider told the Sunday Times that Prince Charles would like to see the palace commercialized
as, quote, "monarchy HQ." A source told the Times,
"I know he is no fan of 'the big house', as he calls the palace [...] He doesn't see it
as a ­viable future home or a house that's fit for purpose in the modern world. He feels
its upkeep, both from a cost and environmental perspective, is not sustainable."
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