Frogmore Cottage is a historic Grade II listed home on the Frogmore Estate, part of Home Park, Windsor, England. It was built in 1801 at the direction of Queen Charlotte in the gardens near Frogmore House. It is part of the Crown Estate, the monarch’s public estate.
History
The cottage was originally known as Double Garden Cottage and was listed in Queen Charlotte’s 1801 accounts for her garden as having been built for £450 by a Mr Bowen. Queen Victoria had breakfast at the cottage on 28 June 1875 and noted an “immense number of little frogs” which she found “quite disgusting”. The cottage has been listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England since October 1975. The listing provides little of the history: “Early C19 plain 2 storey house with parapet. Centre break with porch. Glazing bar sashes. Stucco faced.”
Tenants
The cottage was a retreat for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of George III, and her unmarried daughters. The theologian Henry James Sr. and his family lived at the cottage in the 1840s. A personal secretary of Queen Victoria’s, Abdul Karim, moved to Frogmore Cottage in 1897 with his wife and father. Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna in exile from her native Russia after the Russian Revolution stayed there in the 1920s.
In the early 21st century, the cottage was a series of five separate units housing Windsor estate workers. In 2019, the house was converted into a four-bedroom-and-nursery single-family home at a reported cost of £2.4 million from the Sovereign Grant for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex prior to the birth of their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, in May. As a property of a royal palace of state and designated heritage site, Frogmore Cottage was always scheduled to be renovated, regardless of occupant. However, after the Duke and Duchess announced in January 2020 that they intended to step down as senior working members of the royal family and move (at least partially) to North America, they “shared their wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage”. In September, that sum was reportedly settled in full by the Duke.
In November 2020, it was reported that all personal items belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been removed from the cottage, and that Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank had moved in. The following month, the cottage was reportedly vacant.