Royals
Prince George & Princess Charlotte Are All About The Queen's Playhouse
With electricity and running water, this place takes "playing house" to a whole different level
When I was a kid my grandmother used to let me play with her costume jewelry and her shoes in her closet and I thought I was really living it up. Please. Imagine how much fun it must be for Prince George and Princess Charlotte to play in the Queen's playhouse. No offense to my grandmother's fake pearls, but this situation kind of beats it hands down: It's basically like a child-sized palace, filled with everything any kid could ever want.
In 1932, when Queen Elizabeth II was 6 years old, she and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, were gifted with a luxury playhouse from the people of Wales. The "Wendy" playhouse included a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and a bathroom complete with hot and cold running water (an impressive feat in 2020, let alone almost 90 years ago). Oh, did I mention the playhouse also had a heated towel rail and electricity? It's starting to sound nicer than any home I've ever lived in myself. It even has a thatched roof like a real dream cottage.
No wonder Hello! reports that the three children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, 7-year-old Prince George, 5-year-old Princess Charlotte, and 2-year-old Prince Louis, love playing in it when they visit the Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle.
The Cambridge kids are not the only royals who have loved playing inside the life-sized dollhouse. In 2012, Princess Beatrice, the recently wed granddaughter of the queen, told Andrew Marr in the documentary The Diamond Queen all about how it was a "big family treat" to spend time playing in "Granny's" life-sized doll house, as per People. "It's the most glamorous Wendy house ever, but it's really beautiful and what you're seeing now is after a year's renovation process. It's been completely rethatched, new curtains, new wiring, a bit of a spruce up really! All the little china and glass was created especially for the house."
The luxury playhouse is apparently not just beloved by little royals; Princess Beatrice admitted that her grandmother still liked to check in on it now and then, adding new designs to the decor to make it special for everyone.
Hopefully one day in the near future Prince George, Prince Charlotte, and Prince Louis will be able to introduce the Queen's playhouse to their cousin Archie when he comes for a visit. That place alone is worth the flight across the ocean.
