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The historic Buckingham Palace in central London has been the official residence of seven generations of British monarchs, spanning from the House of Hanover to the present House of Windsor.
However, King Charles III is currently resisting efforts to move into the immense royal residence after ongoing renovation works are complete.
Royal family members have famously complained of the impracticalities of the palace’s scale and former aides have revealed that sections of the home are surprisingly run down.
Buckingham Palace also has a well-documented vermin problem, as referenced in an episode of The Crown where mice are seen scurrying around its great halls.
“Charles has made it clear that he does not want to swap his official London residence, Clarence House, for enormous, impractical Buckingham Palace,” royal historian Dr Tessa Dunlop told Britain’s Express newspaper.
“Nor should we entertain the idea of the King moving, irrespective of the romantic associations attached to the world’s most famous address.”
Instead of hunkering down at Buckingham Palace, most royals primarily live in other residences owned by the crown.
Only the Princess Royal lives in a home she actually owns herself, choosing to reside primarily at her country home Gatcombe Park.
Despite living at Buckingham Palace for more than half a century, the late Queen Elizabeth II was known to prefer living at nearby Windsor Castle or her holiday home at Sandringham and her summer retreat Balmoral in Scotland.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are currently residing in their long-time home at Clarence house, a much smaller but equally central royal residence located close to St James’ Palace.
Dunlop also believes moving Charles and Camilla into a new house is impractical given their advanced age.
“If we want a more modern functional royal family we can’t expect a 74-year-old ‘grandad’ King to upsize from his home of 20 years into a 775-room palace,” she added.
Fellow royal historian Hugo Vickers suspects Charles will eventually run his office out of Buckingham Palace and use it for state occasions, but has “no desire” to live there.
“I think you’ll find that he’ll stay at Clarence House, which even (Queen Elizabeth) wanted to do, but Winston Churchill made her go to Buckingham Palace,” he told The Times.
Other royal experts believe the new King, who has promised to “slim down” and modernise the Monarchy, may take the unprecedented step of opening Buckingham Palace to the public year-round.
Currently, visitors can access the Buckingham Palace State Rooms and the Palace Garden for several weeks in the summer months during guided tours, which have help fund the current round of renovations to the historic home.
