| Thatched House Lodge | |
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 Interactive map of Thatched House Lodge | |
| Location | Richmond Park TW10 5HP,London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England, UK |
| Built | 1673; enlarged 1727 and 1771 |
| Architect | SirJohn Soane in 1771 |
| Governing body | Crown Estate |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Thatched House Lodge |
| Designated | 6 October 1983 |
| Reference no. | 1242619 |
Thatched House Lodge is aGrade II-listed building,[1] dating from the 17th century, inRichmond Park in theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames inLondon, England.[2] It was the home of British prime minister SirRobert Walpole and, since 1963, has been aroyal residence, being leased from theCrown Estate byPrincess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (born Princess Alexandra of Kent),[3][4] and, until his death in 2004, her husband, SirAngus Ogilvy.
The main house has six reception rooms and six bedrooms, and it stands in four acres (1.6 hectares) of grounds. The property includes gardens, an 18th-century two-roomthatchedsummer house which gave the main house its name, a gardener's cottage,stabling and other buildings.
The residence was originally built as two houses in 1673 for twoRichmond Park Keepers, asAldridge Lodge. It was enlarged, possibly byWilliam Kent,[5] in 1727 as a home for SirRobert Walpole.[5] The two houses were joined in 1771 by SirJohn Soane and renamed Thatched House Lodge. It had also been known asBurkitt's Lodge.[1]
The house was used as agrace-and-favour residence by various members of theRoyal Household including General SirEdward Bowater,[6] and GeneralLynedoch Gardiner, respectivelyequerry toAlbert, Prince Consort and toQueen Victoria.Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet retired to the house after he successfully operated on KingEdward VII'sappendix in 1902. Edward VII awarded use of the house toSir Edmund Monson, 1st Baronet on his retirement fromHis Majesty's Diplomatic Service in 1905.[7] Thatched House Lodge ceased to be agrace and favour property in 1927.[8]
Thatched House Lodge was the home ofWing Commander SirLouis Greig (equerry toGeorge VI when he wasDuke of York), who was deputy Ranger ofRichmond Park from 1932. It was then acquired byGeorge Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland. U.S. GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower was allotted a suite there during theSecond World War.[9]
The house was acquired on the open market byAngus Ogilvy through the purchase in 1963 of asublease of the property fromClare, Duchess of Sutherland; he subsequently purchased the leasehold.[10] The asking price for the sublease was£150,000, a considerable amount at the time.[11] The property was held on a lease from theCrown Estate. In 1994, the Crown Estate granted Ogilvy an extension of the lease, to run for 150 years from 1994. Under the 1994 lease, a premium of £670,000 was payable to the Crown Estate, together with an annual rent of £1,000 for the first 25 years, rising in defined stages every 25 years to £6,000 per annum for the last 25 years. The lease required the leaseholder to put the property "in good and substantial repair" and to maintain it as such, to preserve the character of the property. According to theNational Audit Office report on Thatched House Lodge, "considerable sums have been spent during the last 40 years of occupation".[8]
The leasehold arrangements reflect the fact that the property was acquired by Ogilvy on a purely commercial basis, having acquired the sublease of the property for market value on the open market. The commercial nature of the leasehold is shown by the very considerable premium of £670,000 paid on the 1994 extension of the lease, with all maintenance at the expense of the leaseholder, and no charges resulting to the Crown Estate. Independent advice from a leading firm ofchartered surveyors taken by the Crown Estate on the 1994 lease extension used the valuation methods applicable to a leaseholder's statutory rights on renewal of a lease. As the property was acquired in an open market transaction, the leasehold of the property may be sold except in the last five years of the lease. Therefore, although Thatched House Lodge is a royal residence by virtue of being inhabited by Princess Alexandra, it is in fact private property, the sub-lease of which was acquired on the open market, and the leasehold having been bought by Ogilvy. As a result, the property may be sold by the princess or her heirs, subject to the underlying Crown Estate long lease. The property is in an "exempted" area (Richmond Park) where freehold sales are not available.[8]
The leasehold arrangements concerning Thatched House Lodge differ from the arrangements relating to other royal residences leased from the Crown Estate,Royal Lodge andBagshot Park, leased byPrince Andrew, Duke of York andPrince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh respectively. In particular the Crown Estate never made a contribution towards restructuring Thatched House Lodge, as it did in the case of Royal Lodge and Bagshot Park, showing the non-commercial considerations which influenced those leases as opposed to Thatched House Lodge.
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