Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace serves as the official residence and administrative headquarters of the British monarch and royal family in the United Kingdom, located in central London. With a vast expanse of approximately 830,000 square feet and comprising 775 rooms, it includes bedrooms, offices, and grand staterooms where various ceremonial and political duties are performed. The palace is a key site for royal functions, including weekly meetings with the prime minister, hosting dignitaries, and organizing grand receptions. It is also famous for its extensive gardens, which accommodate summer garden parties attended by thousands.
Historically, the site began as marshland and underwent significant transformations, particularly under King George IV in the early 19th century, who expanded it into a palace. Queen Victoria was the first monarch to reside at Buckingham Palace in 1837, and it has since become a symbol of the British monarchy. The palace is also a popular tourist destination, accessible to the public during the summer months. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, King Charles III announced that he would use the palace as his operational headquarters while residing elsewhere, amid ongoing renovations expected to conclude in 2027.
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the residence and administrative headquarters of the monarch and royal family of the United Kingdom. Located in London, the massive structure holds 775 rooms, which are divided primarily into bedrooms, offices, and staterooms. British monarchs carry out the political and ceremonial duties of their office in Buckingham Palace. The duties range from meeting weekly with the British prime minister, consulting with royal advisors and other government leaders, and hosting a variety of guests at elegant banquets. The expansive gardens outside the palace are used for summer garden parties and other receptions. In addition to serving as the British monarch's headquarters, Buckingham Palace is also a popular tourist attraction, opening its doors to public visits every year during the summer months.
Background
The land that Buckingham Palace occupies in London was originally a vacant marshland. King James I of England took control of the land during his reign from 1603 to 1625, wanting to use it for a mulberry garden. The land then passed to James's son and successor, King Charles I. It continued to be transferred to new owners for the rest of the century, and in 1698, it became the property of English politician John Sheffield, who later became the duke of Buckingham.
A large house had existed on the marshland since at least the late 1620s. Upon acquiring the property, Sheffield found this house to be old-fashioned and had it destroyed. In its place, Sheffield built a new residence for himself and in 1703 named it after his royal title, calling it Buckingham House. The house passed to successive dukes of Buckingham into the mid-1700s.
In 1761 King George III bought Buckingham House and its surrounding land as a residence for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their children. The king liked it because it was close to St James's Palace, the British monarchy's official residence in nearby Westminster. Charlotte and her family moved into Buckingham House, after which the location became informally known as the Queen's House.
George III died in 1820, leaving his son King George IV to become the British monarch. The new king was emotionally attached to Buckingham House, having grown up there with his mother and family. He wanted his childhood home to become his official residence as king.
George IV therefore appointed architect John Nash to expand the house into a grand palace. Nash added numerous wings onto the main section of Buckingham House, using quarried stone to enlarge the structure into a colossal U-shaped mansion. Nash also constructed a large triumphal arch, known as the Marble Arch, at the entrance to the palace. This was later moved near Hyde Park in central London.
Nash's expansion and renovation of Buckingham House was costly to British taxpayers. George IV had supported this extravagance, but his death in 1830 left Nash at the mercy of the new government. Although Nash's work on the new Buckingham Palace was generally considered impressive, the British prime minister relieved Nash of his duties as head architect of the project.
George IV's successor, King William IV, chose not to live in the palace. He offered it as a new headquarters for the British Parliament after a fire destroyed the body's original meeting place in 1834. Parliament refused the offer and eventually rebuilt its offices as the Palace of Westminster. Buckingham Palace, meanwhile, remained unfinished. In the early 1830s, Parliament voted to complete the building's expansion and furnish the palace as a royal residence. This work was completed in the mid-1830s. William's niece, Queen Victoria, became the first British monarch to live in Buckingham Palace upon her ascension to the throne in 1837.
It would still take nearly one hundred years for Buckingham Palace to appear as it does in the twenty-first century. In the 1840s, Victoria protested that the palace did not have enough room for entertaining and accommodating guests. The government therefore hired a new architect to enclose the palace's eastern court with a new wing, which contained additional ballrooms and meeting rooms. It was also during Victoria's reign that Buckingham Palace's balcony was installed on the building's front façade. British monarchs appeared on this balcony to mark special events such as royal weddings.
Victoria died in 1901. Her son King Edward VII succeeded her. Edward entirely redesigned Buckingham Palace's interiors. King George V refurbished the palace's façade in the mid-1910s, as the stones had become grimy in London's polluted air. German bombings damaged parts of Buckingham Palace during World War II (1939–45). These areas were repaired, but the residence's core structure remained mostly unchanged into the twenty-first century.
Overview
Queen Elizabeth II began occupying Buckingham Palace after becoming queen in 1952. Monarchs of the United Kingdom serve mostly ceremonial roles in modern British politics, but the duties they carry out at Buckingham Palace remain important to the prestige of the British royal family.
As head of state of the United Kingdom, the British monarch usually receives the country's prime minister at Buckingham Palace once a week, if both individuals are present in London. Monarchs also grant audiences to government officials, a group of royal advisors called the Privy Council, ambassadors from the United Kingdom and other countries, church bishops, and British military officers.
British monarchs host numerous other guests at Buckingham Palace to observe a multitude of occasions. In the twenty-first century, Queen Elizabeth II hosted about 50,000 people a year at the palace. These people were noteworthy British or foreign government leaders, renowned figures in industry or charity, exceptional students from around the world, and high-performing sports teams.
Monarchs may receive these groups with a variety of receptions at Buckingham Palace, from modest lunches to lavish banquets in any of the palace's numerous entertaining halls. Receptions may be themed, such as dinners for women in business or figures of the British fashion industry. Monarchs also employ the palace's expansive gardens for three annual garden parties, held during the spring and summer months. Tens of thousands of guests, generally individuals who are publicly known and who serve the national interest in some way, attend these parties on Buckingham Palace's lawn. Guests eat sandwiches, drink tea, and speak with the monarchs themselves.
The modern Buckingham Palace is about 830,000 square feet (77,109 square meters) in area. A staff of 800 people upkeep the palace's 775 rooms. The rooms include 52 bedrooms for the royal family and guests, 19 staterooms, 92 offices, 188 staff bedrooms, and 78 restrooms. The palace is about 354 feet (108 meters) across its front façade and nearly 79 feet (24 meters) high.
After Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, her eldest son, Charles, ascended the throne. King Charles III announced he would use Buckingham Palace as his "operational headquarters" but would not live there, choosing instead to remain in his nearby residence, Clarence House. In part, he chose not to move into Buckingham Palace because it was in the middle of a ten-year renovation project that was due to be completed in 2027.
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