The extensive parks round Windsor Castle were managed by keepers, most of whom were provided with estate accommodation. This is the origin of Adelaide Cottage which began life as a keepers cottage in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century it was known as Loftin’s Lodge after a former chief keeper of Windsor Little Park.
In the 1780s when George III and Queen Charlotte were looking for private retreats away from the main castle the queen and her ladies sometimes borrowed the cottage where they would have lunch.
Immediately after coming to the throne in 1830 William IV commissioned Sir Jeffry Wyatville to extend and convert the old keeper’s lodge into a summer house for his consort, Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Edward VII ordered that the building be simply called Adelaide Cottage.
The Cottage benefited from William IV’s demolition of parts of the Royal Lodge nearby and parts of that building were incorporated into it. The king also laid out a new garden round the cottage with rose beds and a shrubbery laid out by Thomas Ingram. It was first used by Queen Adelaide on her birthday, 13 August 1831.
Queen Victoria would stop at the cottage and take refreshment with her children and George V and Queen Mary were frequent visitors. More recently it has been allocated to members of the royal household, including Sir Hugh Roberts, the director of the Royal Collection and Lady Roberts the Royal Librarian.
The building is a fashionable 19th century cottage orné and comprises parts of several other royal structures as well as the royal lodge, most particularly the remains of the former Royal Yacht, The Royal George.
In 2022 it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their family would move there.