Boris Johnson has moved into a ministerial grace-and-favour pad a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, it has been confirmed.
Mr Johnson will now take up residence in a flat in Carlton Gardens, a Grade I listed property just off The Mall whose neighbours include the Institute for Government and private bank Edmond De Rothschild Ltd.
Removal vans were this week seen outside the Foreign Secretary’s Islington home, the Evening Standard reported – the site of lively protests following the EU referendum result.
The new apartment was designed by John Nash, who also designed Buckingham Palace, nearby St James’s Park, and Clarence House – the official residence of Prince Charles.
The property is worth tens of millions of pounds and is leased by the Foreign Office from the Crown Estate.
Mr Johnson also benefits from the Foreign Secretary’s official country residence, Chevening – a Grade I listed seventeenth century country mansion set in pleasure gardens and parkland in the Garden of England.
He will share that country mansion with David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, and Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary.
William Hague was reported to have to have “raised eyebrows” when he moved into the flat in 2010, the first Foreign Secretary to do so since Margaret Beckett did in 2006.
The Foreign Office told The Independent: "We can confirm the Foreign Secretary will be taking up residence at Carlton Gardens which has always been the formal residence for Foreign Secretaries.”
