As wedding presents go, it’s certainly luxurious. When Prince William and were married back in 2011, the late Queen Elizabeth II did away with traditional gifts – though Kate known to be a fan of John Lewis – and instead offered the young couple a manor on her Sandringham Estate. In the years since Anmer Hall has become a beloved bolthole for the Wales family: from a permanent residence during Prince William’s pilot days to a rural retreat during lockdown.
Recently, the couple offered a glimpse into their home during a surprise congratulating Team GB on their success in the Olympics. While this royal retreat has become the epitome of rural elegance for decades, its story begins as a chapter in one of England’s most notorious sprees. Originally built as the Coldham family seat at the dawn of the 19th century, Anmer was bought at auction by Ernest Terah Hooley in 1896.
A notorious fraudster, Hooley had made a fortune by inflating the prices of businesses. He was twice arrested, and four times bankrupt, but this ill-gotten infamy didn’t deter Edward VII (then ) from buying Anmer off of the criminal. Rumour has it that the soon-to-be King was so keen to acquire the ownership of Anmer because he wanted to avoid some rather awkward neighbours.
Edward had recently implicated Hooley’s business associate, socialite Alexander Meyrick Broadley in the Cleveland Street Scandal, where many aristocrats (and, the story goes, ) were revealed as patrons of a homosexual brothel in.