Talk:Adelaide Cottage

Adelaide Cottage

The current description contains factual errors. The main error is the claim that Adelaide Cottage and Adelaide Lodge have always been one building, originally named as Adelaide Lodge and then changed to Adelaide Cottage. This is not true.

Adelaide Lodge and Adelaide Cottage were separate buildings until a recent renovation project created extensions to the side and rear of Adelaide Cottage to connect it to Adelaide Lodge and form one large L-shaped building with twin high pitched roofs.

At one time Adelaide Lodge was home to Equerry Group Captain Peter Townsend and his family. More recently the Lodge was used as a mail depot for Windsor Castle and other residences within the Windsor Castle Estate.

The reconstruction, now known as Adelaide Cottage, is not marked on google maps but can be found by scrolling right from Windsor Castle towards Datchet Road. At the end of the Castle's oval shaped lawn another, more narrow, oval shape leads downwards. At the lower end of this,behind the trees, is the Adelaide Cottage compound comprising the new L-shaped building and what looks like an original row of three cottages connected to the original 'Cottage' by a walled yard. A single storey building (the original laundry and kitchen ) connects with the original Adelaide Cottage. A further small building is partly hidden by trees at the entrance to the compound.

The original Adelaide Cottage has a distinctive long portico at the entrance to the house. This building in its original construction was of particular historical interest as a 'retiring cottage' for Queen Adelaide. The modern extensions to the side and the rear to connect it with the Lodge have doubled the size of of the house but have , arguably, destroyed much of the historical value of the original Adelaide Cottage. Auntyalice (talk) 16:18, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

This subject has lacked WP:RS about it's development over-time from the article's beginning. So, we are stuck. If someone can identify RS that have not been found yet, that would help very much, but we can't do it on either personal knowledge or reading google maps. -- Alanscottwalker (talk) 17:20, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

looking at the current Adelaide Cottage compound reveals considerable reality. The main building is obviously not the original Adelaide Cottage. It is the result of a reconstruction begun in 2015. There are several historical sources for both original buildings but some appear to have been withdrawn.

Royal PR sources have for some years now been peddling the myth of a 'humble' 4 bedroomed dwelling as the main Wales's family home. Wikipedia should be a reliable source of authentic information outside the influence of Kensington Palace PR.

From a historical viewpoint the reconstruction has not enhanced or preserved the integrity of the original buildings. Adelaide Cottage in its original form had considerable historical value. Auntyalice (talk) 18:11, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Please read WP:RS, please provide them, you just talking and making claims (especially if they may be derogatory) does not get us anywhere. Alanscottwalker (talk) 20:24, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

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Adelaide Cottage

The extensive parks round Windsor Castle were managed by keepers, most of whom were provided with estate accommodation. This is the origin of Adelaide Cottage which began life as a keepers cottage in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century it was known as Loftin’s Lodge after a former chief keeper of Windsor Little Park.

In the 1780s when George III and Queen Charlotte were looking for private retreats away from the main castle the queen and her ladies sometimes borrowed the cottage where they would have lunch.

Immediately after coming to the throne in 1830 William IV commissioned Sir Jeffry Wyatville to extend and convert the old keeper’s lodge into a summer house for his consort, Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Edward VII ordered that the building be simply called Adelaide Cottage.

The Cottage benefited from William IV’s demolition of parts of the Royal Lodge nearby and parts of that building were incorporated into it. The king also laid out a new garden round the cottage with rose beds and a shrubbery laid out by Thomas Ingram. It was first used by Queen Adelaide on her birthday, 13 August 1831.

Queen Victoria would stop at the cottage and take refreshment with her children and George V and Queen Mary were frequent visitors. More recently it has been allocated to members of the royal household, including Sir Hugh Roberts, the director of the Royal Collection and Lady Roberts the Royal Librarian.

The building is a fashionable 19th century cottage orné and comprises parts of several other royal structures as well as the royal lodge, most particularly the remains of the former Royal Yacht, The Royal George.

In 2022 it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their family would move there.

Plan

Related Palaces

Windsor

Related Monarchs

George III

Victoria

Further Reading

Books & Articles

Copyright © Royal Palaces Ltd 2025. All rights reserved | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy Auntyalice (talk) 16:27, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

If you search the above reference there is an attached image of the architect's plan. This shows four distinct structures:

The staff cottages

The old Lodge

The proposed new Cottage

The single storey extension for domestic offices.

The plan shows the old Lodge as a smaller building with a narrow joining link to the proposed Cottage.

In 2015 the Cottage was extended at the rear and along one side to merge it completely with the former Lodge and create one large double roofed building. Auntyalice (talk) 16:49, 18 August 2025 (UTC)