Kenya’s oldest safari lodge Treetops where Princess Elizabeth became Queen has been forced to close
Kenya’s oldest safari lodge Treetops where Princess Elizabeth became Queen has been forced to close due to the pandemic – after being recreated for The Crown
Kenya’s oldest safari lodge Treetops has been forced to close after 90 yearsWas where Princess Elizabeth became Queen and told of George VI’s deathBecome one of three historical hotels forced to close due to the pandemic
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The Kenyan safari lodge where Princess Elizabeth became Queen has been forced to close after nearly 90 years of welcoming royalty.
Kenya’s oldest safari lodge, Treetops – an elaborate treehouse on the edge of a watering hole in Aberdare National Park – was where the monarch famously ‘went up the tree a Princess and came down a Queen.’
The property was rebuilt after being burned down by guerillas a few years later, but when the Queen and Prince Philip stayed, their accommodation was a comfortable three-bedroom shack, with a small servants quarter, built in the upper branches of a giant fig tree.
Recreated at a game reserve in Cape Town, South Africa for series one of Netflix’s The Crown, a nail-biting scene in episode two, sees Claire Foy, who portrayed Queen Elizabeth, almost killed by charging elephants, but a brave Prince Philip distracts one before chasing the enraged animal off.
The lodge is one of several casualties of the pandemic in Kenya where tourist revenue has fallen by 90 per cent due to travel restrictions, according to The Kenya Wildlife Service.
The Kenyan safari lodge where Princess Elizabeth became Queen has been forced to close after nearly 90 years of welcoming royalty. Pictured, with Prince Philip in February 1952
Claire Foy (pictured) portraying Princess Elizabeth at Treetops in Kenya in series 1 of The Crown
Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the Treetops Hotel on November 13, 1983 in Nairobi, Kenya
Elizabeth was not originally destined to become Queen. However, she became heir presumptive after her father, King George VI, ascended to the throne following the abdication of his older brother, King Edward VIII.
Edward had given up the throne to wed American divorcee Wallis Simpson, as marrying a woman who had separated from her husband was deemed incompatible with his role as head of the Church of England.
During the afternoon before hearing the news of King George VI’s death, Princess Elizabeth spent the day with her camera snapping charging rhinos and a waterbuck goring a rival to death from her elevated vantage point.
Jim Corbett – her armed escort and after whom the Corbett National Park in India is named – later told that when she was invited to come for tea, the princess requested taking it on the balcony, saying: ‘I don’t want to miss one moment of this.’
Eric Walker, who is owner of the Outspan hotel in Nyeri and is the brains behind Treetop hotel, and his wife, Lady Bettie, daughter of the Earl of Denbigh, hosted the royal couple on their visit.
Walker, who was private secretary to Baden-Powell before the Great War, was shot down during his duration in the Royal Flying Corps, but managed to escape from prison camp thanks to a pair of wirecutters that Baden-Powell had hidden inside a gift of ham.
Following this, he was desperate to acquire the money to tie the knot with Lady Bettie, so walked across Germany to the Dutch border, transported four boatloads of liquor to America during Prohibition via boat, before selling his cargo over the side.
However, a warrant was issued for his arrest when a corrupt state trooper found himself injured.
Walker then fled to Canada, wed Lady Bettie before emigrating to Kenya, which is the Outspan hotel was constructed.
When the Queen and Prince Philip stayed, their accommodation was a comfortable three-bedroom shack, with a small servants quarter, built in the upper branches of a giant fig tree
Wooden debris show remainings of the original location of the former tree house where Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II of England stayed the night her father, the King, died and became Queen in 1952 at Treetops Lodge in Aberdare Narional Park in Nyeri, Kenya, on April 10
Princess Anne, guarded by senior hunter Colonel Eric Hayes-Newington, walking through the bush to Kenya’s Treetops Hotel. It was a sentimental journey for the Princess in February 1952
In the Treetops logbook, Corbett penned: ‘For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into the tree as a princess and climbed down as a queen.’
Following the royal visit to Treetops, the lodge quickly became the world’s most famous treehouse – and it wasn’t long before the couple returned in 1959 and 1983.
Treetops was also used by British colonial soldiers as the base for their snipers, but it was burnt down by Mau Mau guerrillas in 1954.
A new Treetops then took shape on the other side of the watering hole where it has remained, with guests even able to retrace (as long as they have an armed guide) the jungle walk which Princess Elizabeth made in 1952.
However, it has since become one of three historical hotels in Kenya’s Nyeri county being forced to close due to the pandemic.
