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Before she got the keys to Buckingham Palace, the Queen was the proud owner of another home, a pint sized model house gifted to her by the people of Wales on her 6th birthday in 1932.
Stunning archive pictures from the 1930s show the then- Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret posing outside the ‘Little House’, which was later moved to the grounds of the Royal Lodge of Windsor.
The remarkable black and white photographs offer a glimpse into the charmed childhood of the longest-serving monarch who is now 92-years-old.
In one both sisters, wearing Victorian dresses and their hairs in curls, stand outside the pint-sized home complete with its very own doorbell and doormat, with a sign above reading “Y Bwthyn Bach”, which means The Little House in Welsh.
Other incredible images show Elizabeth playing with a pram in her beloved house, which shows her remarkable resemblance to her now great-granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, 4.
Another shows Princess Elizabeth out for a drive in the spring sunshine in London with her nurse while her mother received the house on a trip to Cardiff.
The series of remarkable photos also show the house being repaired by dozens of workmen after it was damaged in a fire.
On her birthday in March 1932 a straw thatched cottage in the grounds of the Windsor Royal Lodge was given to the Queen and her sister Princess Margaret in the name of the people of Wales.
Since then it has become a remarkable play den for generations of royal children to come.
Her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, then known as the Duke and Duchess of York, had started renovations on the grounds of the Royal Lodge.
Princess Elizabeth’s model home was damaged by fire while being transported to London from Cardiff and the incredible images show workers sputting the finishing touches to it.
The small house was fully furnished and had a garden with hedges and borders.
The house was designed by architect Edmund Willmott and at the time there was no expectation that the six-year-old princess would ever be Queen.
But her father King George VI took up the role of monarch in 1936, when his older brother unexpectedly abdicated to marry Wallace Simpson, an American divorcee.
Elizabeth was crowned in 1952 after her father died and has ruled ever since to become the world’s longest-reigning monarch.
The Queen’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice once described the house as “the most glamorous wendy house ever”.
The quaint property is called Y Bwthyn Bach, or The Little House.
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