THE former home of the Duchess of York has been bulldozed and replaced with an eco mansion.
Fergie took solace at Romenda Lodge on Surrey’s upper-crust Wentworth Estate following her split with Prince Andrew.
Romenda Lodge on Surrey’s upper-crust Wentworth Estate
Sarah Ferguson moved to Romenda Lodge in 1992 after her marriage to Prince Andrew crumbled
She also lived there with her American financier boyfriend John Bryan, who was famously caught sucking her toes during a holiday in the South of France in 1992.
He said last week that Princess Diana and the Queen both visited the woodland home to see Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with Diana bringing Harry and William to play with their cousins, adding: “Most of the time we stayed home.”
But the beautiful 1930’s house has now been replaced with a huge neo-Georgian home with an exposed basement and a string of environmentally friendly additions.
And its name also appears to have been changed to Sherbourne House, presumably to erase all traces of its former royal history.
Sarah Ferguson moved to Romenda Lodge in 1992 after her marriage to Prince Andrew crumbled.
But she was essentially exiled there that summer after raunchy pictures of her appeared with her lover Mr Bryan on holiday in Saint Tropez.
He was photographed at a remote villa apparently sucking the royal redhead’s toes – though he claims he was kissing them as part of a game he was playing with her daughters.
He said last week that after the images came out he and Sarah actually stayed together for four years, living at £4,000-a-month Romenda Lodge together.
But the pair had been so burnt by the frenzy surrounding the toe-sucking pictures that they went to great pains not to be photographed together or even allow anyone outside their closest circle to know they were in a relationship.
He said of their time at the house: “Most of the time we stayed home. It was a gated community.
“We had 16 royal protection officers – four people working for eight hour shifts, so 12 every day with four in reserve.
“They were there to protect the granddaughters of the Queen.
“There was a beautiful building at the back converted into an office for the officers with banks of cameras.
“One person was always in there, two would roam around and one would always be in the house with us. They became part of the family.”
Princess Diana would regularly bring the young Princes William and Harry round to play with their cousins.
And he said of Diana: “There was a magic to her, she was funny, brilliant, smart.
“I feel uncomfortable saying too much about Diana or the Queen. I’d rather leave those memories untouched. It’s too soon to talk about the Queen – it would be disrespectful.
“She would come over to have tea with her grandchildren. To them, she was just granny.
“I feel so honoured to have seen that side of her. It was beautiful and loving.”
Romenda Lodge now looks to be consigned to history after it was knocked down and its name apparently changed.
It was bought in March 2019 for £4.1m by Alistair and Margaret Erskine.
Permission to demolish the existing house and build a two-storey replacement was granted in mid 2020, with work still going on on the site now.
The plot is littered with diggers with tradespeople still there hard at work.
A sign at the entrance reads ‘Sherbourne House, formerly Romenda Lodge.’
Runnymede Borough Council asked for a slew of environmental considerations when they said work could go ahead.
They told the owners that renewable and low carbon technology must be used throughout the design, with 10% of the energy coming from renewables.
Electric charging points and rainwater harvesting were also a must.
The new building is two storeys with a sunken basement, attached garage, boot room and huge steps down into the garden.
The lodge had previously been plagued with so-called urban explorers.
Video taken by people who broke into the house show 90’s-style decorations still in place.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash was apparently spent doing the lodge up when Fergie moved there.
Trendy architect Tchaik Chassay and interior designer Nina Campbell were apparently hired to turn the pad into a residence fit for a royal, with Campbell saying at the time: “It’s a very country house, but with style.”
Pictures of the house from 2020 show a grubby cover sagging into a dirty and empty swimming pool, John Lewis carpet has been ripped up and a 90s bathroom suite – thought to have been installed at the time Fergie lived there – lies unused.
Other bathrooms are marbled with double sinks, an intercom system is still visible in the hallway while a tennis court is covered in moss with balls left untouched, and the door to a sauna is swinging open.
What appear to be Segways are stored in the hall while brass animal statues are wrapped in plastic and have been left lying by a door.
A large conservatory seems to be entirely intact while a once luxurious kitchen has two dishwashers.
There are several pictures of the duchess and her daughters in the grounds of the home in the 1990s.
She is said to have received a £4,000-a-week settlement from Andrew after they separated.
She is also understood to have been handed 30% from the sale of their marital home Sunninghill, in nearby Ascot, which was also bulldozed in 2016.
One of Sarah Ferguson’s former bathrooms
The swimming pool left in disrepair
