Inside Kate Middleton’s party pal Rose Hanbury’s 106-room estate – from kids roller-skating in halls to Kate Moss visits
SHE may rub shoulders with the Prince and Princess of Wales, but society party pal Rose Hanbury lives in her own palatial pad that’s fit for royalty.
The Marchioness of Cholmondeley, 39, resides in the extravagant Houghton Hall in Norfolk, which has 4,000 acres of deer-filled grounds, along with corridors so large her kids can roller-skate in them.
Rose (née Hanbury) revealed to that she struggled to feel at home in the gigantic Palladian home, which her husband, David Rocksavage, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, inherited when he was 30.
And she also has the enviable problem of having no idea how many rooms are in her own home (reportedly 106).
Rose shared: “Moving anywhere feels awkward at first, and it took me a while to adjust and feel at home.
“We use the ground floor, and the second and third floors, where the are. The first floor is mainly occupied by the State Rooms. I don’t know how many rooms we have in total.”
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So what exactly does take place within the walls of Houghton Hall?
Halls so large you can rollerskate in them
Rose resides at Houghton Hall with her husband, her twin boys, Alexander and Oliver, and daughter Iris - along with their whippet, Benjy.
“The children love Houghton and I do think they appreciate it, including having so much space to run around in the grounds,” Rose added.
“The boys also love the main arcade – the entrance hall – and use it as a skateboarding and roller skating arena. It has columns to weave between and they get up quite a speed.”
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And Alexander and twin Oliver - who starred as a page in King Charles’ coronation - don’t just have their own bedrooms.
The boys living quarters are separate hexagonally-shaped, domed cupolas.
The “magical” rooms are even decorated so one resembles the night sky and the other a day sky.
Running Houghton Hall is no mean feat, with royal expert Ingrid Seward telling Fabulous: "Since Rose's marriage, she has been a mother, a hostess and running the stately home, Houghton Hall, which is a full time job."
24-hour raves
The jaw-dropping estate, which dates back to the 1720s, is just a stone's throw (three miles to be exact) from the Prince and Princess of Wales' Anmer Hall.
So it was very handy for Kate to pop over to enjoy her first ever 24-hour rave there earlier this month, Houghton Festival, which takes place annually in the grounds.
This year it ran from last Thursday to Sunday and featured more than 200 artists performing across 13 stages with music always playing somewhere at the site.
In 2019, there were rumours of a rift between Kate and Rose, which were later slammed by friends as “false” and “mad.”
Cosy ‘family’ kitchen with TV and fire
While David inherited the house in 1990, it wasn’t until 2009, after the twins were born, that he and Rose made it their main home.
The former model said having a family brought a “new dimension” to the home and the first thing she did was to add an “informal family kitchen” to be the hub of the household.
She set about creating the “cosy and relaxed” room to have a TV, fireplace and a big sofa, whereas she previously ate dinner with David in the dining room each night.
Also perfect for“ trundling babies up and down” is a “gated lift” that was installed in the 1920s and rises up through the stairwell.
Rose told the Financial Times: “The house never felt spooky – you could sense that it has been well lived-in and loved.”
State Rooms that the public can tour
Houghton Hall, which was first commissioned for Great Britain's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpol, has been well preserved over the years.
Members of the public can even pay up to £22 to tour the formal State Rooms, State Bedroom and the impressive grounds.
And as David told : “Every generation has to find a way to keep these places going.”
After an extensive annual “dust-down” the home is open from April to October and is described on the website as “Palladian splendour, glorious gardens and contemporary art in beautiful Norfolk.”
But if you are expecting to run into Rose and her family, you will likely not be in luck, as they keep themselves to their own informal quarters.
In contrast to the green velvet and silver gilt embroidered State rooms, Rose said her own rooms are “less formal”, “warm and welcoming”, with items collected from their travels.
The one item she couldn’t live without
Rose and her husband, who wed in 2009 and said to be worth an estimated £112million, but the one item she can’t live without is kitchen-related: her “Wembury Warmer.”
She said it has poignant family ties as it was designed by her mother, and is “very good for keeping things warm when you don’t have an Aga.”
Menagerie of exotic animals
While Houghton Hall’s rooms are impressive, arguably the grounds are even more magnificent and play host to a number of interesting animals.
According to the estate’s Instagram page, there are white stags, deer and Silkie chickens and even English Longhorns.
Kate Moss
The glitzy world of A-list glamour collided with the stately rooms of Houghton Hall when supermodel Kate Moss - a long time pal of the couple - held a magazine fashion shoot there in 2012.
The photos appeared in Love magazine, who described front cover star Kate as having a “romp through Houghton Hall.”
Kate had previously met “great friend” David at the age of 19 and said to the of his home on her first visit: “I knew he had a country house, but I didn’t know it was a stately home.
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“When I arrived I was just like: ‘Did I die?’ I was sitting on the lawn with peacocks and white deer, in a Galliano dress, all dishevelled.
“I just love that house. I love it. I love him. I love him and Rose. It’s just a dream, isn’t it? It’s a dream house.”
