At a glance…
- Princess Diana’s ancestral home, Althorp House, is where the People’s Princess is buried.
- She was born in Park House, which is currently abandoned.
- On his visit to the UK in 2026, Prince Harry visited his mother’s grave at Althorp House with his children and wife.
Princess Diana’s childhood home, where she lived and played for 14 years, is now abandoned.
On July 1, 1961, the People’s Princess was born in Park House, on the royal Norfolk estate. Her father, John Spencer, rented the property from the late Queen Elizabeth for a year before her birth.
She grew up merely 500 metres away from Sandringham Estate – the British royal family’s home frequently used during the Easter and Christmas holidays.
Princess Diana remained here until she was a teenager. It is safe to presume Diana’s first brush with royalty would have occurred during this time. In 2021, her former au pair Inge Crane told CNN that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Prince Edward often swam in the property’s pool.
After her father was made the first Earl Spencer, the family left Park House to return to their ancestral home, Althorp in Northamptonshire.
Althorp House is currently open to the public, allowing visitors to view its beautiful interiors and private collection of furniture, pictures and ceramics. However, it will be closed on July 10 and 11, which was presumably due to Prince Harry’s visiting the residence with his family.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to visit the U.K. with their two children, Archie and Lilibet, in July to coincide with the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games Birmingham. Prince Harry’s late mother is also buried on the estate.
Meghan confirmed that they visited Princess Diana’s grave by posting a carousel of images to her Instagram captioned “Summer Holiday.” In one of the images, we see Princess Lilibet running after her father, Prince Harry and brother, Prince Archie, who have bouquets of flowers in their hands. They likely visited Diana’s grave on the property.
Meghan shared the images on the same day as the start of the Commonwealth Games and before her appearance on MasterChef Australia.
As for Park House, to make use of the 16-bedroom home, it was donated to charity, Leonard Cheshire Disability, in 1987. The family home was transformed into a hotel that catered to people with disabilities and their carers.
The organisation ran the hotel, with plans of refurbishing the property in 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic deferred all plans, and eventually, the hotel closed.
The property was returned to the royal estate in 2021, and has remained vacant ever since.
Previously, the Mirror shared photographs of the home deteriorating. The once prestigious home is overrun with unruly grass, peeling paint, smashed windows and a caved-in roof, as per the Mirror in 2025.
Share this post