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Buckingham Palace
London and surrounding
Palaces
Palaces

To witness the daily routine of the royal family, see the famous Changing of the Guard ceremony, and visit one of the best-known buildings in London are the reasons why thousands of tourists come to Buckingham Palace every year. What other curiosities are there for the visitors?

It may come as a surprise for you, but the palace building didn’t always belong to the royal family. It was initially built as a residence for John Sheffield, first Duke of Buckingham and Normandy. King George III acquired the palace in the late 18th century and began to expand it. The rebuilding works took 75 years. Only in 1837, under Queen Victoria, Buckingham Palace was declared the official residence of British monarchs. It remains so to this day.

The appearance of the building weaves together features of traditional for England neoclassical and Georgian architecture. Beautiful prim gardens surround the austere and majestic palace. With their area added, it occupies an impressive territory of two dozen hectares. In front of the main facade of the building, there is a square, where tourists are greeted by the Queen Victoria Memorial with marble and bronze statues.

There are almost 800 rooms inside Buckingham Palace. Some are for official receptions. A few dozen more apartments are intended for the royal family and guest chambers. Still, most of the space is occupied by bathrooms, offices for politicians, and staff areas. Visitors can only see a fraction of the palace, but even it is enough to appreciate its splendor and beauty.

Generally, tours to Buckingham Palace are allowed only when Her Majesty leaves her residence for several months, which usually happens during the autumn or winter season. During this time, visitors have the opportunity to have a closer look at the halls for official receptions, including the throne room and ballroom, visit the Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews, discover the collection of treasures, and imagine what the everyday life of the royal family is like.

Address: Westminster

Published by

Diane Mikheeva

All content and media files are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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