As the details for the royal wedding are finalised, the palace has announced the locations that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will stay in the evening before their wedding.
Prince Harry and The Duke of Cambridge are to stay at Coworth Park near Ascot on Friday 18th May. It is a 5* hotel run by the Dorchester Collection, and has been visited by the Princes in the past for polo matches.
Prince William and Prince Harry play polo on the second day of the Audi Polo Challenge at Coworth Park, Ascot. May 2017 (Picture by Stephen Lock / i-Images)
Meanwhile Meghan will be staying at the historic Cliveden House, once home to Nancy Astor – the first woman to take her seat in Parliament. We’re sure Meghan is pleased at the feminist link!
The current Grade I listed house was the design of Sir Charles Barry, who is best known for designing the Palace of Westminster. His Italianate masterpiece was built for the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland in the 1850s and is the third house here, the other two having burned down.
Nancy Astor was an American heiress or Dollar Princess, whose money helped save the Astor family. Soon after her marriage, she became the centre of high society in the 1930s, as did her home, Cliveden. These people included author George Bernard Shaw and Rudyard Kipling.
Cliveden, the estate on which Nancy Astor lived with her husband, Waldorf. Meghan markle is to stay here the evening before her wedding (James Stringer)
One of Nancy’s sons, Bill (William) got himself mixed up in the Profumo affair of 1961; War Secretary John Profumo had a brief affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler, conducted during a party at Cliveden, hosted by Bill.
Today Clivden is a National Trust property and hotel.
Meghan will stay here with her mother, Doria, and travel to Windsor Castle on the morning together; the bride will exit the car at St George’s Chapel, to be walked down the aisle by her father, Thomas.
