Frogmore House, royal residence and regal wedding venue of choice for the Windsors, is throwing open its doors to visitors. The famous building at Windsor will be open for three charity days at the end of May this year.
The visits are part of the annual charity garden open days. This year they fall on May 28th, 29th and 30th and support three different organisations – the National Garden Scheme, the British Heart Foundation and the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society. Usually, the house is only open to groups of fifteen or more people on selected dates in August.
Visitors will get a chance to tour the house as well as the famous gardens. They might even catch a very distant glimpse of the private Frogmore Cottage, now the home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their family.
The site has been a royal favourite since the end of the 18th century when it was bought by Queen Charlotte to use as a country retreat alongside her unmarried daughters. Charlotte and her princesses loved to sketch, draw and paint at Frogmore and they redesigned the house to reflect their interests. Queen Charlotte commissioned Mary Moser to decorate one of the main rooms in the house so that it had the appearance of an arbour.
In the 19th century, Frogmore House became the home of Queen Victoria’s mother. Victoria, Duchess of Kent spent the last twenty years of her life at Frogmore and passed away there on March 16th 1861 with her daughter at her side. It was later used a residence by Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Helena, while several famous royals, including Lord Mountbatten, were born there.
Most recently, the Duke of Edinburgh transformed several rooms at Frogmore to house items taken from the Royal Yacht Britannia when it was decommissioned in 1997.
It’s also become well known as the favourite wedding reception venue of the younger generation of the House of Windsor. The Queen’s eldest grandchild, Peter Phillips, held his reception there following his marriage to Autumn Kelly at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor on May 17th 2009. Frogmore House was the setting for the evening party following the weddings of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on May 19th 2018 and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on October 12th 2018. On May 18th 2019, Lady Gabriella Windsor and her partner, Tom Kingston, will hold their wedding reception at Frogmore House following their marriage at St. George’s Chapel earlier the same day.
Tickets for the May open days are now available on the websites of the three charities involved and links to all three can be found on the Royal Collection Trust website.
