Sunninghill Park, Berkshire, England

Sunninghill Park is a country house and estate of some 665 acres (2.69 km2; 1.039 sq mi), located north of Cheapside, in the civil parishes of Sunninghill and Ascot and Winkfield, adjoining the south-western boundary of Windsor Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. It was the official residence of the Duke of York from 1990 until 2004.

SUNNINGHILL PARK was included in the forest of Windsor until the reign of Charles I. It was granted by Charles I to Thomas Carey in 1630. He died three years later and the park was purchased of his daughters Philadelphia, Frances and Elizabeth by Thomas Draper. . He was created a baronet in 1660 and died in 1703 without male issue. The property was inherited by his daughter Mary Baber, whose grandson Thomas Draper Baber sold the estate in 1769 to Jeremiah Crutchley, in whose family it still remains, the present owner being Mr. Percy Edward Crutchley.

First house

Sunninghill Park was originally part of Windsor Forest until 1630 when King Charles I granted it to Thomas Carey. In circa 1633, it was purchased by Sir Thomas Draper and sold in 1769 by his great grandson, Thomas Draper Baber, to Jeremiah Crutchley, whose family owned it until perhaps the death of Percy Edward Crutchley in 1940. (Crutchley's maternal grandparents were the owners of Eldon House in London, Ontario). The first significant house was built on the estate in the late Georgian period in the early 19th century, being a stucco building of two stories with later additions.
It served as the headquarters of the American Ninth Air Force from November 1943 to September 1944. The Crown Estate Commissioners purchased the property in 1945, from the late Philip Hill[disambiguation needed]. The main house was made available to Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and her future husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for after their marriage in November 1947, but the house burned down on 30 August 1947 before they could occupy it, so they rented Windlesham Moor instead. In the mid-1960s the site was considered for a new home for Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, but this did not happen.

Second house

"Sunninghill house - back" by Dee Earley - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunninghill_house_-_back.jpg...

In 1986 the walled garden of some 5 acres (20,000 m2; 220,000 sq ft) was purchased from the Crown Estate Commissioners on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. The following year construction began on a two-storey red brick house to be the home of the Duke and Duchess of York. The architect responsible was Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith, Balmoral Estate Architect and Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at Heriot-Watt University. Construction was completed in 1990.

The house has six reception rooms, 12 bedrooms, and 12 bathrooms, and compares in size to the larger country houses built since the Second World War. Sunninghill Park was the first newly built royal home since Bagshot Park was built in 1879 for the Duke of Connaught. In the British tabloid press the home was often referred to as 'SouthYork' a play on words for the 'Southfork' estate on the popular 1980s soap opera Dallas, and was also "mocked for its resemblance to a Tesco-style supermarket".

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002, it was announced that the Duke of York planned to move out of Sunninghill Park and into Royal Lodge, Windsor, the Queen Mother's former residence.[6] Until 2004, the Duke of York and his former wife shared the family's home. In 2007, the Duchess rented Dolphin House, and became next door neighbours with her ex-husband. He moved in 2004, following refurbishment of Royal Lodge, funded by taking out a mortgage on Sunninghill Park.HM Land Registry records show that the house was sold for £15 million in 2007, £3 million over the asking price, to an offshore trust in the British Virgin Islands.Kenes Rakishev, a 29-year- old Kazakhstan businessman who calls himself a 'friend' of Prince Andrew, has admitted negotiating the deal with the help of his father-in-law Imangali Tasmagambetov, the mayor of Astana; but insists neither of them is the owner.The British press have speculated that the most likely owner is his business partner, Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire son-in-law of the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

On 24 February 2009, the Daily Mail newspaper reported that the house has been allowed to fall into an increasingly derelict state.In July 2009, Bracknell Forest Borough Council were said to be considering seizing the property under the Housing Act 2004 and using it as a homeless shelter, following several reported break-ins.

Duke of York's former home 'bought in money-laundering scam'
The Duke of York may be called to give evidence in court over claims that a Kazakh billionaire paid £15 million for his Ascot home in a money-laundering scam.The Duke’s decision to sell Sunninghill Park to Timur Kulibayev, the powerful son-in-law of the president of Kazakhstan, for substantially more than the £12 million asking price in 2007 has long attracted scrutiny. Duke of York's former home 'bought in money-laundering scam' Prince Andrew and Goga Ashkenazi It had been suggested that the house was bought as a “favour” to the Duke, who has an unpaid role as Britain’s trade ambassador and has visited the mineral-rich former Soviet state on several occasions. A leading Kazakh banker now claims that Mr Kulibayev bought the 12-bedroom property using money he received from the sale of one of the country’s major energy companies to the Chinese. Mr Kulibayev has denied all allegations of corruption relating to that deal. Mukhtar Ablyazov, a pro-democracy campaigner and former boss of Kazakhstan’s largest bank, has made the allegations in documents to be submitted to the High Court in London, as part of an increasingly bitter legal battle.