Buckingham Palace today
Today, Buckingham
Palace is very much a working building and the centrepiece of the
UK’s constitutional monarchy, serving as the venue for many royal events
and ceremonies from entertaining foreign Head of States to celebrating
achievement at Investitures and receptions.
More than 50,000 people
visit the Palace each year as guests to State banquets, lunches,
dinners, receptions and Garden Parties. Her Majesty also holds weekly
audiences with the Prime Minister and receives newly-appointed foreign
Ambassadors at Buckingham Palace.
History of Buckingham Palace
George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife
Queen Charlotte to use as a comfortable family home close to St James's
Palace, where many court functions were held. Buckingham House became
known as the Queen's House, and 14 of George III's 15 children were born
there.
George IV, on his accession in 1820, decided to
reconstruct the house into a pied-à-terre, using it for the same purpose
as his father George III.
As work progressed, and as late as the end of 1826, The
King had a change of heart. With the assistance of his architect, John
Nash, he set about transforming the house into a palace. Parliament agreed
to a budget of £150,000, but the King pressed for £450,000 as a more realistic
figure.Nash retained the main block but doubled its size by adding a new suite
of rooms on the garden side facing west. Faced with mellow Bath stone, the
external style reflected the French neo-classical influence favoured by
George IV.
The remodelled rooms are the State and semi-State Rooms,
which remain virtually unchanged since Nash's time.
The north and south wings of Buckingham House were
demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale with a triumphal arch - the
Marble Arch - as the centrepiece of an enlarged courtyard, to
commemorate the British victories at Trafalgar and Waterloo.
By 1829 the costs had escalated to nearly half a million
pounds. Nash's extravagance cost him his job, and on the death of George
IV in 1830, his younger brother William IV took on Edward Blore to finish
the work. The King never moved into the Palace. Indeed, when the Houses of
Parliament were destroyed by fire in 1834, the King offered the Palace as
a new home for Parliament, but the offer was declined.
Queen Victoria was the first sovereign to take up
residence in July 1837 and in June 1838 she was the first British
sovereign to leave from Buckingham Palace for a Coronation. Her marriage to
Prince Albert in 1840 soon showed up the Palace's shortcomings.
A serious problem for the newly married couple was the
absence of any nurseries and too few bedrooms for visitors. The only
solution was to move the Marble Arch - it now stands at the north-east corner
of Hyde Park - and build a fourth wing, thereby creating a quadrangle. The cost
of the new wing was largely covered by the sale of George IV's Royal
Pavilion at Brighton.
Blore added an attic floor to the main block of the Palace
and decorated it externally with marble friezes originally intended for
Nash's Marble Arch. The work was completed in 1847.By the turn of the century
the soft French stone used in Blore's East Front was showing signs
of deterioration, largely due to London's notorious soot, and required
replacing.
In 1913 the decision was taken to reface the façade. Sir
Aston Webb, with a number of large public buildings to his credit, was
commissioned to create a new design. Webb chose Portland Stone, which took
12 months to prepare before building work could begin. When work did start it
took 13 weeks to complete the refacing, a process that included removing
the old stonework.
The present forecourt of the Palace, where Changing the
Guard takes place, was formed in 1911, as part of the Victoria Memorial
scheme.
The gates and railings were also completed in 1911; the
North-Centre Gate is now the everyday entrance to the Palace, whilst the
Central Gate is used for State occasions and the departure of the guard
after Changing the Guard. The work was completed just before the outbreak
of the First World War in 1914.
Visiting Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is open to the public during the summer
months and for a limited number of tours in December, January and at Easter
each year.
