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Middleton to spend eve of wedding at 5-star hotel

Kate Middleton's spending her last night as a lone woman in a room able-bodied for a queen.

The princess-in-waiting is staying Thursday at London's Goring Hotel, a family run comfort hotel just approximately the corner from Buckingham Palace.

Middleton, mother Carole and sister Pippa will stay in a newly redecorated five-room set overlooking the hotel's personal garden, entire with a four-poster bed, silk wallpaper and even a waterproof flat-screen TV in the bath.

Its individual furnishings supposedly consist of an original Thomas Crapper flush bathroom and a silk wedding gown thought to be a prototype of the one worn by Queen Victoria at her own marriage.

The red brick Edwardian hotel opened in 1910 and is still owned by the family of founder O.R. Goring. It claims to have been the first hotel in the earth to offer the comfort of a personal bathroom for each room.



Its closeness to the palace has given it long connections with the royal family. Queen Mary, William's great-great grandmother, and his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother Elizabeth, both took tea at the Goring. Queen Elizabeth II ate sausages and knotted eggs there with her family when she was a youthful princess just after World War II.

The hotel is not saying how much it is charging the Middletons, but its 71 rooms and suites usually cost between 410 pounds and 1,525 pounds ($670 and $2,525).

The Goring boasts a comfortable secret garden where the bride can reflect on her big day and indulge in afternoon tea, and a highly regarded kitchen — famous for its Lobster Thermidor omelets and hearty full English breakfasts — to perform any last-minute cravings.

It is also, significantly, handy for the Westminster Abbey, the venue for Friday's wedding. Kate is due to depart the hotel at 10:51 a.m. and enter for the ceremony promptly at 11.