It was confirmed earlier this year that Prince William, his wife Kate and their two young children will be relocating permanently from their Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, to their apartments in Kensington Palace, London.
Given that the family are swapping their secluded country estate for a flat in the thick of central London, it’s only natural that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge should feel concerned about the privacy of George, 3, and Charlotte, 1. To guard against prying eyes in a way that won’t feel too obtrusive to the young family, the royals have asked gardeners to plant a row of conifer trees alongside Kensington Palace to shield from the long lenses of the paparazzi, according to Hello!
Royal sources told the magazine that the trees, which are known to grow higher than 40 feet, are being planted for ‘privacy and security.’ The conifers will create a dense wall, more than 820 feet in length, along the western side of the Palace (where Apartment 1A can be found).
This is not the first time that the Duke and Duchess have acted upon their concerns about the privacy of George and Charlotte. When they returned to Anmer Hall after Charlotte’s birth in 2015, the palace distributed a letter to those living around the Sandringham estate, asking for ‘acts of harassment and breaches of privacy’ to cease, in accordance with their right to a ‘private family life.’
‘There have in the past been a number of intrusions into the privacy of the Royal Family which in the main have been as a result of professional photographers using long distance lenses, not only to observe the Royal Family, but also to photograph them going about their activities on the Estate,’ it read.
‘The warm-hearted and understandable interest in the Royal Family and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge needs to be balanced with their right to private family life – this is especially important for a family with very young children,’ a Palace spokesperson commented at the time.
The couple are likely to put further security measures in place in September, when Prince George will start school. Currently enrolled at the Westacre Montessori School in Norfolk, it is thought he will attend Wetherby Pre-Preparatory School, where his father and uncle Harry were pupils.
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