At home with Prince Charles

London is filled with little sightseeing secrets: Private places that open their doors to tourists through one scheme or another once or twice a year. Clarence House, the official residence of Prince Charles, his wife and sons, is one of those. Open for just six weeks a year (August and September), only through advance ticket sales and in limited, guided groups of less than 20, this is an opportunity you're not going to stumble upon by accident.


It's certainly worth the planning effort. Clarence House is unique in several ways. First, of course, in the exclusivity of access. You can't even see the house from the street ... it is literally a hidden gem. Second, it's a beautiful example of Regency style, an era that was so brief there aren't that many good examples in the country. Third, it's tiny by the standards of a Royal palace. Fourth, the combination of high walls and carefully planned garden makes it hard to believe you're in the middle of London. Finally, it is very much a private home and gives you a delicious feeling of evesdropping on the most famous family in the land.

The tour takes you through five reception rooms on the ground floor, connected by a long entry hall, a staircase hall and a side hall hung with equestrian art. Every room is exquisitely and tastefully decorated, packed with wonderful works of art, fascinating decorative nick nacks and tempting shelves of books. (I believe you can tell whether you're going to get along with a person simply by inspecting his or her bookshelves. I could have happily been abandoned for hours with the Clarence House library.)

The halls are panelled, somber and a bit imposing, which makes for a delightful contrast when you enter the main rooms. All are high, light and airy, a perception helped by those wonderful full length Regency sash windows that, when opened from the bottom, create an open door to the garden beyond. The artwork is, as you would expect, dominated by portraiture. But there's some unusual stuff here that isn't regularly made public. Delightful, informal preparatory sketches that capture more of the essence of the sitter, childhood portraits, unfinished efforts. Probably most significant paintings, however, form a collection of John Piper watercolours of Windsor Castle, done just before WW2. My personal favourite, though, was the Landseer painting of Queen Victoria's dogs that took pride of place in the dining room, with a lounging spaniel at its centre. My kind of decor.

A lounging Landseer spaniel takes pride of place on the wall above the dining table. My kind of decor.

The hand of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother is still heavily felt here, from her favourite pieces of furniture and feminine colour schemes in the drawing room to the sculptures of her racing horses, all the novels by her former jockey, Dick Francis, and the well worn copy of the Noel Coward song book on the piano, autographed by the composer (who was a close friend).

The left side of the house is, since the Prince of Wales' alterations five years ago, a single progression of three rooms that can be turned into one by throwing open the large double doors between each. Drawing room merges with a rather small library (it was originally the entry hall), and library with dining room. You're shown the drawing room first, then go through to the library, and it's only when they finally throw open the doors into the dining room that you fully appreciate the drama of the space. And yet, it's very liveable. In square footage, these rooms aren't that much bigger than the suburban mansions that the average American chief executive lives in.

The other two rooms are a waiting room, which I would have assumed was the library had the guide not told us this is where guests are left to enjoy their G&Ts until the Prince arrives. The last room you see is a very large drawing room with a mildly Asian theme. This was actually an addition to the original house, built by one of Queen Victoria's sons for the benefit of his wife. She was the daughter of the Russian Tsar and was horrified at the tiny house she was expected to live in. Thus her husband almost doubled the size of Clarence house, turning it into what's on show today. Though it's still probably smaller than the homes of many of today's top sports stars.

The architecture and the decor were wonderful to see, but at the end of the day it was the family memorabilia and the personal stories that made Clarence House a delight. This is worth going out of the way for, for any fan of the modern royals.