Queen Charlotte’s Cottage was built as a one-storey building between 1754 and 1771 within the grounds of Richmond Lodge (which now form the western half of Kew). It was located within an oval ring of pheasant pens, at the end of a paddock known as the New Menagerie.

Previously known as the Menagerie (later the New Menagerie), it became home to exotic creatures from the furthest reaches of the British Empire, including a pair of black swans, buffaloes and the first kangaroos to arrive in England, which successfully bred here. George III also kept an example of the now extinct quagga, an animal similar to a zebra, at the Menagerie.

George III bestowed Richmond Lodge and estate to Queen Charlotte as part of their marriage settlement. From the early 1770s the cottage (or at least its interior décor) was a source of pride for the Queen.

In August 1774, the London Magazine described the cottage as a “pretty retreat”. When exactly the crude red brick building acquired an extension and its first floor ‘picnic room’ (accessed by a curving staircase) is not clear, but incidental evidence points to the mid- to late-1770s.

This main room, with bamboo motif door mouldings and pelmets, has painted convolvulus and nasturtium ‘growing’ up its walls. These may have been added by Queen Charlotte’s artistic third daughter, Princess Elizabeth.

Despite considering it a 'favourite place', George III did not return to Kew after 1806, and the Georgian royal family stopped using the cottage in 1818.

In 1845, fencing was replaced by open rustic trellis to reveal it to the public. However they couldn’t get close until Queen Victoria ceded the cottage and its 15 hectares of grounds to Kew in 1898 to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee. At this time furniture and pictures were removed and sent to Windsor Palace.

The late Princess Margaret, the present Queen's sister, used the cottage in 1996 for a private party.