queen childhood home© Photo: Getty Images

The Queen and Princess Margaret's two nurseries inside grand childhood home revealed

Her Majesty's childhood home is now InterContinental London Park Lane

Deputy Lifestyle Editor
July 21, 2021

As a child, the Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) lived at 145 Piccadilly with her sister Princess Margaret and parents the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and the Queen Mother.

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Her Majesty's childhood home, which is now the site for InterContinental London Park Lane, boasted a ballroom, a library and twenty-five bedrooms, as well as two nurseries for the young Princesses. 

Photos taken inside the royal home both during and after they lived there have shared a peek inside the night and day nursery, both of which were decorated with red carpets.

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Located on the top floor, the night nursery featured a fireplace with a mirror resting on top and a large window on the back wall. Furniture-wise, a wooden cot was positioned to one side with a large armchair next to it, a dressing table with a mirror sat in front of the window and a chest of drawers offered space for the future Queen's clothes.

READ: Where does the Queen live now? Why Her Majesty moves several times a year

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Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret next to Margaret's cot at an exhibition of royal treasures in 1939 

The day nursery also featured a grand fireplace and patterned armchairs, as well as a wooden table and chairs and a tall dresser with glass cupboards displaying ornaments and toys.

According to Jane Dismore, author of Princess: The Early Life of Queen Elizabeth II, it was "filled with toys and curios from all over the British Empire: tiny, exquisitely dressed dolls; china cottages and palaces; model soldiers and ships; animals, birds and fishes in finely-blown glass, many of them gifts from Queen Mary."

The family lived at 145 Piccadilly before moving to Buckingham Palace

Her Majesty moved into the Piccadilly home at the age of one and her younger sister was born three years later in 1930, when the pair then shared these rooms. Princess Elizabeth was later given her own bedroom.

After her father King George VI took the throne in 1936, the family took up residence at Buckingham Palace and 145 Piccadilly was put on the market for rental. Luckily, the royals were not at the property in December 1940 when the home was badly damaged by World War Two bombs.

MORE: Why the Queen only owns two of her homes

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