Queen Camilla Is Reportedly Pushing for This Change to the 775-Room Buckingham Palace

The iconic palace is currently undergoing renovations until roughly 2027.

The Gist

• Buckingham Palace is currently undergoing renovations expected to last until 2027.
• The renovations—done to the tune of a reported $499 million—are preventing King Charles and Queen Camilla from moving from their London home, Clarence House, into the palace until the renovations are complete.
• Camilla wants to add a surprising room to the palace’s opulent 775 rooms—and it’s one you’d likely expect to already be inside the palace walls.

Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms—but there’s one room it doesn’t have, and that’s a library.

If Queen Camilla has her way, that’s about to change. As the iconic palace undergoes continual renovations that are expected to last until 2027, Camilla—long a champion of literacy—is pushing for a library to be added to the list of rooms inside the royal residence. Buckingham Palace, in fact, is the only royal residence that doesn’t have one, per Hello!.

Camilla has long made a concerted effort to not get “too involved in the royal infrastructure,” but when it comes to the $499 million renovations to the palace (which amounts to £369 million), “her passion for books has driven her to break her own rule,” according to Hello!.

According to a press statement from the palace, Buckingham Palace is getting a “complete overhaul” and “modernization.” The renovations have prevented King Charles and Queen Camilla from moving from their London home, Clarence House, into the palace, which is slated to happen after the renovations are complete.

Buckingham Palace has not had a library ever since King George IV donated the King’s Library inside the residence to the British Museum, Hello! reported. Outside of the offices of the late Prince Philip, who died in 2021, “books are sparse in the palace,” the outlet added, and Camilla is seeking to change that.

Though Charles and Camilla plan to eventually reside in Buckingham Palace, Prince William and Kate Middleton apparently do not. Their move into their “forever home”—the eight-bedroom, $21 million Forest Lodge located in Windsor Great Park—will reportedly be their residence even after William becomes king, whenever that may be. It’s a tradition-breaking move, as the Prince of Wales will be the first monarch since medieval times to not live in a royal palace or castle if his decision is upheld as his eventual reign begins.

“The Prince and Princess of Wales clearly love living in Windsor,” said Danielle Stacey, royal correspondent at Hello!. “The children are settled at Lambrook School nearby, and they will still be close to Windsor Castle for royal functions and engagements.”

In moving from their current home, the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage, to Forest Lodge by the end of the year, “Upsizing to Forest Lodge allows the family more space and has already been viewed as their ‘forever home,’ rather than having the children growing up within the walls of a palace,” she continued.