Here are more photos of the Cambridges at yesterday’s christening for Princess Charlotte at Sandringham. I posted photos yesterday – Kate wore this rather beautiful Alexander McQueen coatdress in cream and a Jane Taylor hat. She looked really beautiful. She also seemed very happy and proud of her children and eager to show them off. It was sweet to see. Of course, it also served another purpose. Royal babies make people forget about Will & Kate’s penchant for spending thousands on unnecessary renovations just because they’re bored and idle. The Daily Mail had an update on the situation with the tennis court at Anmer Hall, which we discussed last Friday. Guess how much this mess is going to end up costing? £60,000!
When it comes to the perfect game of tennis, it’s the detail that really counts for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, it seems. For as Wimbledon enters its second week, the Royal couple are planning to spend an eyebrow-raising £60,000 to move their own tennis court a mere 36ft – in order to improve the view at their country home, Anmer Hall in Norfolk.
According to documents posted on the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council website, William and Kate have applied for planning permission to demolish an existing court and build a new one with an artificial grass surface just a court’s width further to the right. Both William and Kate are avid players and Kate is a regular visitor to the All England Club. Their plans form part of a comprehensive overhaul of the grounds at Anmer Hall, which are likely to cost several tens of thousands. The project includes planting numerous trees, partly for reasons of privacy, although ten trees and a lavender hedge will be felled to make way for the new court.
It is understood the Royal couple are also investing in extensive vegetable and fruit gardens. Keen gardener Kate has a small kitchen garden at Kensington Palace, but with the Anmer grounds covering nearly nine acres, the Norfolk plans are more ambitious. The Cambridges have spent two years and around £2.5 million refurbishing the Georgian manor house on the Sandringham Estate, a gift to Prince William for his 30th birthday.
As well as rerouting a driveway to make it more private and relocating the swimming pool, the couple have installed a new roof and a conservatory. They have also converted many of the estate’s outhouses to accommodate a growing team of staff. The renovation – which will be paid for privately – is in contrast to the more frugal habits of the Queen, whose gardens at Windsor Palace have hardly changed over the decades.
The garden at Anmer, where the Cambridges will grow their own produce in eight 6ft-high fruit and vegetable ‘cages’, will also include a potting shed and an ice house – an old-fashioned subterranean structure for storing ice and preserving food. Prince Charles, who has extensive gardens at his Highgrove home –which also famously boasts a stunning kitchen garden – is believed to have advised the couple.
The state-of-the-art tennis court comes complete, of course, with fencing. Industry sources say a new tennis court costs about £50,000 to build, but installing an artificial turf surface would drive the price up by another £10,000. According to the council documents, ‘moving the court further away from the Hall improves the views from the Hall’.
A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess said that no public money was being spent on the project, and that the current court needed extensive resurfacing work. The Cambridges, he added, had been advised to start again.
[From The Daily Mail]
As many of you pointed out last Friday, there’s some question as to whether this “moving the tennis court” thing is really a land-grab. They seem to want to move the tennis court half-way onto someone else’s property (a tenant farmer) or even public park land. And this comes after they “moved” their pool too. My God. I understand wanting to make a property your own, but the combination of “they’re just spending Charles’ money at the cost of millions of pounds” and “utterly unnecessary” part of just renovating for the sake of renovating… it’s all very rage-inducing. But look at Prince George, right? No one can complain when George’s grumpy mug is around.
Also: many people are complaining about Nanny Maria’s terrible nanny uniform. I don’t get it either, but People Magazine says it’s her real uniform.
Princess Charlotte after her christening at the Church of St Mary Magdalene #Sandringham today pic.twitter.com/xxV10WNBBH
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) July 5, 2015
