Royal Gives Fans Rare Look Inside Kensington Palace

From Town & Country

Royal watchers got a rare peek inside Kensington Palace on Tuesday, thanks to the Queen's cousin, the Duke of Gloucester. As a part of his royal duties, the Duke spoke on the phone with Major General Alan Hawley from the Royal Army Medical Corps—from his home in the palace, of course, as the U.K. is back in lockdown—and the Windsors shared an image of the call.

In the background of the photo, fans can see an impressive bookcase, which boasts numerous weathered tomes and multi-volume works. This personal library is kept in the Duke's home, a residence on the Kensington Palace grounds known as the Old Stables. (Until 2019, the Duke and his wife, the Duchess of Gloucester, resided in the palace's spacious, 21-room Apartment 1, but have since downsized to the more modest Old Stables.) Check out the image below.

As the pandemic has forced the royal family to conduct their responsibilities remotely, through Zoom calls and the like, fans have been granted unprecedented access into the Windsors' private residences. In past photos and videos released during the past several months, royal watchers have learned that Kate Middleton keeps several Penguin clothbound classics (including titles like Emma, Sense and Sensibility, The Hound of Baskervilles, and Middlemarch) on her desk in her and Prince William's Kensington Palace abode, that Queen Elizabeth has corgi figurines on her Windsor Castle workspace, and that every member of the royal family is apparently born with a passion for porcelain trinkets.

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