Although there are beutiful historical buildings like Hampton Court Palace, a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London; many are no longer occupied

Hampton Court has not been lived in by the British royal family since the 18th century; today, the palace is open to the public, and is a major tourist attraction.

It is cared for by an independent charity, Historic Royal Palaces which receives no funding from the Government or the Crown

However, the palace housed 50 'grace and favour' residences given to esteemed servants and subjects of the crown.
It was an elderly recipient of one such grace and favour apartment who caused a major fire, which spread to the King's Apartments in 1986.

I love this exchange in parliament in February 1968 by William Hamilton MP for Fife, West discussing expenditure on 'grace and favour' residences :)

"The Minister of Public Building and Works, who is the right hon. Member for Bermondsey (Mr. Mellish), has 140 of these houses in his charge: 57 at Hampton Court, 43 at Windsor Castle, 16 at Kensington Palace, eight at Marlborough House Mews, nine at St. James's Palace, three at Buckingham Palace, one at Kew Palace and one at Hyde Park. These residences are entirely at the disposal of Her Majesty the Queen.
They are granted to members of the Royal Family, to persons who have rendered special service to the Crown, and, at Hampton Court, to widows of men who have rendered special service to their country.
I could give some examples.
One was given to Sir Alan Lascelles, the Queen's former private secretary. At that time, he was a director of the Midland Bank.
I do not think that he is now, but I took the trouble to look at the figures and I found that, in 1967, the Midland Bank had 25 directors, with total emoluments of £160,000.
This was a fellow who was living rent free, at the taxpayers' expense.

There was a piece in the Daily Express at the time: At Hampton Court Palace, the Queen is running a rather superior widows' home, choosing the tenants herself from widows of men who distinguished themselves in some form of service for the country.
It then cites certain examples.
There is a Post Office engineer who managed to get one of these houses by falling in love with and marrying Princess Margaret's maid.

I was so intrigued and excited by this marvellous instrument for awarding rent-free houses to those who had rendered valuable service to the nation that I wrote to Her Majesty on 14th July, 1964.

I raised the matter with my constituency party and, with the permission of the people concerned, I gave to Her Majesty the Queen the names and addresses of two retired miners and their wives in my constituency.
I pointed out that they had been 50 years in the pits.
They had been in much greater danger than a lot of the military men who had got these houses.

Both couples were living on their pension. Each of them seemed to me to have a cast-iron case for retirement with rent-free leisure. I was full of expectation when I received a letter from the Palace, dated 17th July—no delay in replying:

§ "Dear Mr. Hamilton,

§ "I am commanded by The Queen to thank you for your letter of 14th July on the subject of the allocation of Grace and Favour Houses.

§ Yours sincerely,

§ M. E. Adeane."

The Chairman Order. It is not in order to bring a communication from or on behalf of the Monarch into the debate. "