Buckingham Palace behind the Victoria Monument, as seen from The
Mall |
Buckingham Palace with the Union Flag projected onto it for Christmas Eve
2003 |
Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Originally Buckingham House, it was built for John
Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, in 1703, and was purchased from his
descendant Sir Charles Sheffield in 1762 by King George III. This comparatively new royal
residence has subsequently been substantially rebuilt, extended and refurbished. In 1826
King George IV commissioned John Nash to remodel the palace; however, the heavily gilded
present interiors were not completed until the reign of William IV and his wife Queen Adelaide,
though the King never lived there. Many of the smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style, this is because many of the fireplaces,
decorations and furniture were brought from the Royal Pavilion at
Brighton, and Carlton House the palaces of George IV following his death.
It finally became the principal Royal residence in 1837 on the accession of Queen Victoria. The large wing facing east
towards The Mall (today the 'public face' of Buckingham Palace) was constructed after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert. By 1847 the couple had found the palace too small for court life and their growing family. As a result the new
wing, designed by Edward Blore,
was built. This enclosed the quadrangle which is the centre of the palace. This new wing contains the balcony from which the
Royal Family acknowledge the crowds on momentous occasions. The ball room
wing was also built at the same. time, and Marble Arch, the former state
entrance to the palace, was moved to its present position at Hyde Park
Corner
The last major building work was during the reign of King George V when, in 1912, Sir Aston Webb re-designed the principal Victorian facade to resemble in part Giacomo Leoni's Lyme Park in
Cheshire. This new refaced principal facade (of Portland stone) was designed to be the back drop to the Victoria Memorial (a large memorial statue of Queen Victoria placed outside the main gates.
Following the last major extension in 1847, the palace (as it does today) consisted of
19 state rooms, 52 principal bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms. While this may seem large, compared with
the Tsar's palaces in St.
Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo, or the Papal Palace in Rome it is comparatively small.
The principal rooms of the palace are contained behind the, west facing, garden facade at the rear of the palace. The centre
of this magnificent suite of state rooms is the music room, its large bow being the dominant feature of the facade. Flanking the
music room are the blue and the white drawing rooms. At the centre of the suite, serving as a coridor to link the state rooms, is
the immense picture gallery, the gallery is top lit and 155 yards (50m) long. The gallery is hung with works by Rembrandt, van Dyck,
Rubens and among many other Vermeer. Other rooms leading from the picture gallery are the throne room and the green drawing
room. The green drawing room serves as a huge anti room to the throne room, and is part of the ceremonial route to the throne
from the guard room at the top of the grand staircase. These rooms are only used for ceremonial and official entertaining.
Directly underneath the state apartments are a suite of, slightly less grand, rooms known as the semi-state apartments,
opening off from the marble hall these rooms some of which were decorated in 1844 for the State visit of the French Emperor and
Empress, are used for less formal entertaining such as luncheon parties and private audiences. At the centre of this suite is the
Bow Room, through which thousands of guests pass annually to the Queen's garden parties in the gardens beyond. The Queen uses
privately a smaller suite of rooms in the north wing.
In addition to being the week-day home of HM Queen Elizabeth II, the palace is the working place of 450 people. Every year some
50,000 people are entertained at garden parties, receptions, audiences, and banquets. Buckingham Palace is also the venue for the
daily ceremony of the Changing of the Guard, a major
tourist attraction.
The opening of the palace state rooms to the public was a huge change to tradition in the 1990s. The money raised in entry fees was originally used towards the rebuilding of Windsor Castle after the fire which destroyed many of its state rooms. Contrary to popular belief the
Palace is not the private property of The Queen, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace and their art collections belong to the
nation.
The approach road to the palace, known as The Mall, forms
part of the state ceremonial route to the palace, beginning at Admiralty
Arch. At the rear of the palace lie Buckingham
Palace Gardens and the Royal Mews.
See Also
External link
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