Clarence House

Clarence House was built between 1825 and 1827 to a design by John Nash, on the site of 16th-century apartments raised during the reign of Henry VIII. It was commissioned by the Duke of Clarence, who moved there in preference to the adjoining St James's Palace, an antiquated Tudor building he found too cramped, and who became King William IV in 1830.

On his accession he stayed at Clarence House rather than move to Buckingham Palace, and had Nash cut a direct passageway through to the State Apartments of St James's Palace, where he could conduct royal business. He reigned there until 1837.

From William IV the house passed to his sister, Princess Augusta Sophia, and after her death in 1840 to Queen Victoria's mother, Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent. In 1866 it became the London home of Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who held it until his death in 1900. Her third son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, used the house from 1900 until his own death in 1942.

For a brief period in the 1930s, during Prince Arthur's tenure, Clarence House held the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies. That arrangement lasted until London's universities were evacuated in 1939 and the school moved temporarily to Cambridge.

Clarence House was damaged by enemy bombing during the Blitz of 1940–1941. After the Duke of Connaught died in 1942 the building was given over to the Red Cross and the St John Ambulance Brigade, which used it as their headquarters for the rest of the Second World War. Over the years the house has undergone extensive remodelling and reconstruction, most notably after that wartime damage. Little remains of the original structure designed by Nash.

After their marriage in 1947 Clarence House became the residence of Princess Elizabeth and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; their daughter Princess Anne was born there in August 1950. Elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952 and moved to Buckingham Palace the following year, and her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and her sister, Princess Margaret, moved in.

Margaret left for an apartment at Kensington Palace after her marriage in 1960. The Queen Mother remained in residence at Clarence House until her death in March 2002.

Charles, then Prince of Wales, took up residence in 2003, and the house was also the official residence of Prince William until April 2011 and of Prince Harry until March 2012. It has been Charles III's primary London residence since 2003; like William IV, he remained at Clarence House when he became king. In June 2026 it was announced that he and Queen Camilla would continue to reside there while Buckingham Palace served as the headquarters of the monarchy, where official events would be held. They have also announced that they will go on using Clarence House as their London home after the renovations to Buckingham Palace are completed in 2027.

The house is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England, and opens to visitors for about one month each summer, usually in August.