MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 1, 2 January 1931, Page 8

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

ITS FUTURE DISCUSSED

PRINCE PREFERS YORK HOUSE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 23rd October. The future of Marlborough House, which has remained "unoccupied since tho death of Queen Alexandra, is under discusison. It has been intended that the Prince of Wales should make the mansion his London home. The Prince, however, has remained at York House, although the preparations for his reception were completed over two years ago. This week an authoritative statement has been made to the effect that the Prince does not intend to take up residence at Marlborough House at present, and that tho future development of the place is under discussion by the committee of experts set up by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, under the chairmanship of Sir Howard Frank, to consider the whole question of Government property. This committee, on which Sir Howard Frank has as his colleagues Mr. J. W. Beaumont Pease and Mr. Philip E. Hill, was established last February to "examine the present allocation of Government properties with a view to the liberation for full economic development of any properties which may not be required for Government' purposes, and to the disposal of such properties to the best advantage." The mansion off Pall Mall was built by Wren for the Duke of Marlborough, at a cost of between £40,000 and £50,000. It remained the residence of the Churehills for one hundred years, receiving its first Koyal tenants in 1817, when the^house reverted to the Crown. Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold then began the royal associations of the mansion. After the death of tho next tenant, Queen Dowager Adelaide, widow of King William IV., tho house j served for a time as a picture gallery, until in 1850 it was settled upon the Prince of Wales, who reigned as King Edward VII. Our present Sovereign was born at Marlborough House, which he occupied from 1901 to 1910. Queen Alexandra returned in the days of her widowhood to reside in the house which had been her home as Princess of Wales. Then under the direction of the Office of Works extensive alterations were carried out in order to make the house ready for the occupation of a third Prince of Wales. Queen Mary became the- adviser of her son in the choice of colourings for the interior. In the heart of the house a five-room bachelor suite was made ready in cream and light blue, which the Prince proposed to set apart as his home within tho mansion. The suite was prepared, but the tenant did not arrive. The stately mansion still remains with its blinds drawn. Dust sheets cover the magnificent furniture.