palacevirtualtours.com News:Buckingham Palace

Queen to keep her view

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0700

After an outcry from Londoners, plans to build two new skyscrapers close to Buckingham Palace have been scraped, or at least modified. The plan was to build a two 380ft towers just 50yards from the palace. This has been changed to a single tower of 240ft. If the new option is in anyway visible behind the palace from the Mall, it two should be scraped.

Unfortunately London has not learnt from the success of cities like St Petersburg which have not allowed any high rise buildings in the city centre to ensure that the flavour of the city is not altered. The Prince of Wales has been an outspoken critic of London's policy of allowing skyscrapers near historic buildings. In a recent example a building was approved which would appear behind St Paul's Cathedral, potentially ruining that view as well.

Another potential issue with building skyscrapers near Buckingham Palace is the reduction in the Queen's privacy. Over the past 50 years several buildings have been built overlooking the palace gardens and trees have had to be planted in order to give the Queen the ability to walk around unseen. She values her time with her corgis walking around the garden, which she does as often as she can.

Unfortunately it does not look like the building policies are going to change in the near future so London skylines could continue to be ruined for some time to come.

For more details see: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23437053-details/Majestic+views+from+Buckingham+Palace+saved/article.do.

Want to see the gardens of Buckingham Palace for yourself? Purchase the virtual tour of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace worth nearly £1 billion

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Zoopla.co.uk has claimed that Buckingham Palace is worth £935 million. It also believes Windsor Castle is worth £180 million. Both these values are down on what they estimated last year.

Buckingham Palace sits on some of the most valuable land in London. It has a garden of 40 acres, and that alone would be enough for the value to be massive. Of course the palace itself has over 700 rooms including the 19 state rooms open to the public during the summer opening, as well as the 52 royal and guest bedrooms.

A spokesman for Zoopla points out that George III purchased Buckingham House for £21,000. It was originally purchased for his Queen, Queen Charlotte as a private residence. George IV planned to expand it, although it was still planned to be a private residence. After £800,000 had been spent on it by the time Queen Victoria to the throne, it became the principal residence of the monarch.

Because it is no longer a private residence, Buckingham Palace is actually owned by the taxpayer and managed on its behalf by The Queen.

The estimate of £180 million for Windsor Castle seems somewhat low. It cost around six million per room to restore the private and state apartments. To re-build the castle from scratch would therefore cost substantially more than £180 million.

To explore Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle for yourself, you can purchase the Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle Virtual Tours.

For more information on the story: Buckingham Palace valued at close to £1 billion

Ramsay slams Buckingham Palace food

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Gordon Ramsay has slammed the quality of food at Buckingham Palace calling It ‘pre-historic’. Ramsay is well known for his foul mouthed comments about other chefs. This time he attacked the chefs at Buckingham Palace who are led by chef Mark Flanagan.

Ramsey was commenting on the food that he ate during a reception held at Buckingham Palace. He talks of how he was struggling to swallow the food he was eating as The Queen was coming over to talk with him.

The kitchens at Buckingham Palace were rebuilt as part of the Queen’s Gallery project, which saw the expanded Queen’s Gallery take over part of the old kitchens. The kitchen is in the southwestern corner of the palace. This has the advantage of being near the ballroom where banquets take place, but the major disadvantage of being a substantial distance from the private apartments where The Queen lives.

Soon after The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace the Duke installed some cooking equipment into the private apartments because by the time food came from the kitchens, it was cold!

For more information on this story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1050575/Foul-mouthed-Ramsay-Ramsay-Food-Buckingham-Palace-prehistoric-s-.html

If you’d like to learn more about Buckingham Palace, you can purchase the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour.

Summer opening numbers up

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Royal Collection will be very pleased with the response to this year’s summer opening of Buckingham Palace. It has been reported that the visitor numbers this year have increased 8% from last year, despite a fall in foreign tourists to Britain of 5%.

If the numbers continue at this rate, it would result in around 390,000 visitors, compared to 360,000 last year. However this is still below the 400,000 visitors achieved in 2006, the year of the Queen’s 80th birthday.

It is also very good news for those of us concerned with the condition of the royal palaces, as the money the Royal Collection earns goes into maintaining the substantial contents of the palaces. They are currently repaying a loan taken out for the building of the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace and Holyrood House and hopefully once this is repaid they can use any additional income to help repair the palaces. It is estimated the cost of repairs and refurnishing at the royal properties will amount to £32 million pounds by 2015.

For more details: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/queen-raking-in-the-moolah-as-tourists-rain-down-on-buckingham-palace_10088757.html

For if you want to learn more about Buckingham Palace, the best way to do so is through the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour.

Queen's former chef told off for being "Tour Guide"!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In a story that comes as no surprise to us, it has been reported that a former member of the Queen’s kitchen staff has been accused by wardens at the summer opening of Buckingham Palace of being an illegal tour guide.

Apparently the pastry chef who worked for the royal family in the kitchens for eleven years was with a group of friends showing them the places he used to work. As he was pointing out a photograph and telling his friends that it wouldn’t be laid out exactly that way in the case of a banquet, one of the wardens shouted out that it would be. Of course the chef was actually correct, as although the ballroom is laid out in a similar way to a state banquet, changes have been made in order to accommodate the fact that 400,000 visitors will have to file through the room.

To add insult to injury once he entered the ballroom and was answering a question from one of his friends about some of the china that is being displayed as part of the exhibition, a warden told him off for being a tour guide. In order to ensure that the visitors are able to move through the Palace easily, tour guides are not allowed during the summer opening. If you visit some of the larger palaces in Europe where this is allowed, you will find that it is often very difficult to move around the group because they are very large.

However Buckingham Palace has gone to the other extreme, where anyone who answers anybody else’s questions is accused immediately of being a tour guide. This has happened to me before where I innocently answered a bystander’s question about the door leading into the White Drawing Room from the Royal Closet. I did this because the warden in the room was busy with somebody else. Before I’d even got to the Minister’s Staircase, the person in charge of the summer opening was up the stairs and telling me off. I was told in no uncertain terms that tour guides are not allowed.

One of the issues at Buckingham Palace summer opening is that because it is only open two months a year, staff do not necessarily have a good knowledge of the history of the palace. Visitors who ask questions of the wardens often find the warden simply goes to the official guide and comes up with an answer that doesn’t add anything to your knowledge. I did encounter one particularly knowledgeable man, but by and large the wardens are there to protect the palace as opposed to inform visitors.

For more details see: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/royalwatch/news/article_1424275.php/Queen_Elizabeths_chef_reprimanded

If you really do want to learn something about the palace, the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour is the best place to go. You can download an evaluation version from: Virtual tour of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace Banquet on display

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

This year’s summer opening of Buckingham Palace is even more special than usual. That’s because this year, the Ballroom is set up as it is for a banquet.

One of the highlights of any State Visit to the United Kingdom is the State Banquet, held at either Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle. At a State Banquet, Buckingham Palace’s Ballroom is set up with a U shaped table and the 170 guests eat off the grand service made for King George IV.

Over the last century many of the great royal families of Europe were removed from their thrones, so magnificent sites like this are generally only in museums. From the 29th of July to the 29th of September 2008, visitors to Buckingham Palace will see a cut down version of the layout for a banquet. The tables will be laid with the magnificent grand service and around the side of the ballroom visitors will see additional silver gilt and porcelain from the Royal Collection.

The Ballroom at Buckingham Palace was added by Queen Victoria in 1855 to provide room for larger gatherings. When George IV started building Buckingham Palace he intended it only as a private residence so the largest room, the Blue Drawing Room was not large enough for the kind of balls that Queen Victoria wished to hold.

After Edward Blore’s ugly East Front, a new architect James Pennethorne was chosen to design the new Ballroom and Ball Supper Room. The exterior of the new rooms was consistent with John Nash’s original design for Buckingham Palace, but the interior designed by Prince Albert’s artistic advisor Ludwig Gruner bore no relationship whatsoever to Nash’s designs.

When Edward VII came to the throne Buckingham Palace had changed little in the previous 40 years. He immediately set about repainting many of the rooms in white and gold. One of these rooms was the Ballroom. The new colour scheme and additional remodelling substantially improved the room.

The Ballroom still suffers today from a lack of natural light, making it the darkest state room in the palace. But nothing can take away from the magnificence of George IV’s grand service. A visit to the palace in 2008 is a once in a lifetime chance to see what only a few people will have the opportunity to see – one of the most magnificent palaces in the world, the way it was meant to be viewed, as a working palace.

For a video about the opening: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7524755.stm

If you want to learn more about Buckingham Palace its magnificent architecture and furnishings, check out the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour. You can download an evaluation version from: Virtual tour of Buckingham Palace.

Queen misses out on funding

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Earlier this year we reported that the government were considering giving The Queen additional funding to repair the royal palaces. See Queen gets money to fix crumbling palaces for more information.

It now appears that this rumour was not true and The Queen has lost out to the Olympics, which require £9.3 billion of funding. Even though funding for the maintenance of palaces has fallen 70 per cent in real terms since 1990, the government refuses to add any additional monies to make up for a backlog of maintenance.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, has revealed they estimate they will need $32 million between now and 2018 to get the maintenance back on track. Unfortunately, since we reported last year’s maintenance backlog, virtually nothing has been done because the £5 million The Queen receives for palace maintenance is simply not enough to go around.

This year it has been revealed the queen is very concerned about the lack of maintenance of the palace state rooms, many of which have not been redecorated since the beginning of her reign in 1952. On this basis, it is a credit to the royal household that the rooms are in as good a condition as they are. There is no question that a large project needs to be started to regild the whole of the state apartments. It is rather depressing to walk around Buckingham palace looking at this magnificent design with such old gilding.

The electrical wiring in the palace has not been renewed since 1948, and all the palaces are lined with asbestos which needs to be removed.

Just replacing the roofs at Buckingham palace and Windsor Castle is estimated that $16 million.

For more information on the story see: Even the Queen is feeling the crunch

The virtual tour of Buckingham Palace from palacevirtualtours.com allows you to explore the rooms and artwork discussed in this article. An evaluation version of the tour is available for free download.

Queen reported to be abandoning Buckingham Palace

Sun, 25 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In another story that makes you wonder how they come up with them, the Daily Star have reported that the Queen is going to abandon Buckingham Palace, so that Princes William and Harry can use it for holding parties.

The very concept of the queen could abandon her principal London residence, whilst still fulfilling her duties as monarch is totally ridiculous! The Queen meets with the Prime Minister every week at Buckingham Palace and receives foreign dignitaries along with many other key functions which could not be performed from Windsor Castle.

Although Queen Victoria did abandon Buckingham Palace after the death of Prince Albert in 1861, the times are substantially different and it would not be politically feasible for the Queen not to be in London during the week.

It certainly is true that The Queen is not hugely fond of Buckingham Palace. Her private apartments are really in the worst possible place, being on the north side where they get almost no sun. They are also not as magnificently decorated as the private apartments at Windsor Castle, where The Queen prefers to spend her time.

However, the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace are amongst the most magnificent in the world, with their gilded ceilings setting them apart from any other suite in the world.

For more information on the story see: Party Central for Princes

You can see the magnificent private apartments at Windsor Castle by purchasing the Windsor Castle Virtual Tour.

You can see the state and private apartments at Buckingham Palace by purchasing the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour.

Guardian calls for access to Buckingham Palace garden

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Guardian columnist Madeline Bunting has called for The Queen to pull down the walls of the Buckingham Palace garden in time for the 2012 Olympics. She argues that the public should be given unlimited access to one of the few remaining green areas in Central London not accessible to the public.

She completely misses a couple of key points.

The first point is the security of The Queen. If there was unfettered access to the garden of the palace, it would make the job of guarding The Queen almost impossible, as it would be either difficult or impossible to close down any sort of area to keep tourists far enough away from The Queen’s private apartments.

Secondly, unlike the rest of us, The Queen can’t just wander into any of the public parks that surround the palace. Like everyone else should be able to enjoy the outdoors, and if the garden was open to the public, she would hardly be able to walk around it!

It’s hardly unusual that the head of state has a private garden, visitors can’t just wander around the gardens of the White House as they feel like it. In New Zealand the Governor General’s house in Wellington has associated gardens. Neither the house nor the gardens are generally accessible to the public.

We would love to see greater public access to Buckingham palace and the gardens, but Britain is not a communist country and we can’t just take over other people’s space.

For more information about this story: Open those gates, Ma'am

If you want to learn more about the gardens at Buckingham Palace, the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour has much more information.

Exotic trees added to Buckingham Palace

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Queen has added some exotic trees to the gardens at Buckingham Palace. The new palm trees were spotted by the Queen at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show, and ordered soon afterwards for the Buckingham Palace Garden.

The trees are described as having silvery blue – green, flame shaped leaves. There were supplied by Simon Gridley, from Amulree Exotics, and sourced from Spain. The cost is reported to have been below £800.

Because of the cold London climate, they will be stored inside until summer when they will be planted in the gardens. It is not reported where there will be stored, as the original palace conservatories have been converted to a swimming pool and the Queen’s Gallery respectively.

The Queen’s garden is no stranger to exotic imports. For many years the garden was home to a group of pink flamingos, which were unfortunately killed by foxes in the 1980s.

For more details see: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3890030.ece

If you want to learn more about the gardens at Buckingham Palace, the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour has much more information.

Palace G P’s slammed

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It has been revealed that Buckingham Palace has its own GP surgery, accessible only by 300 people working at the palace. It receives payment of £113 per person, compared to the national average of £63 per person.

For more information on this story see: Watchdog blasts exclusive GP surgery at Palace

Queen looking for footmen

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Like most other employers, The Queen finds it difficult to find good employees. At the moment she is advertising for new footmen.

Despite the low pay rate, the job comes with the perk of one of the most famous addresses in the world.

You will work in the most magnificent State Apartments in the world, the setting for some of the great pageantry of British life. You’ll serve at the some of these magnificent events including State Banquets, part of the regular State Visits held at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. You will be capable of standing for very long periods of time. At these great events footmen spend a lot of time standing and very little time sitting down.

After a period of time you may even serve the royal family themselves. The Queen’s Private Apartments at Buckingham Palace have attractive gilded ceilings, but if you have the chance to visit her Private Apartments at Windsor Castle, you’ll be privileged enough to see what is probably the most magnificent suite of Private Apartments in the world today.

If you want to visit some of these magnificent rooms, including the State and Private Apartments, but do not wish to become a footman, you can purchase the Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle Virtual Tours.

For more information on this story: Queen advertises for trainee butlers

Queen gets money to fix crumbling palaces

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Last year Buckingham Palace announced that it was struggling to find enough money to fund critical maintenance. See Buckingham Palace crumbling for details.

It appears the government may be at last providing additional help in the form of one million pounds over the next three years. This is clearly ridiculously insufficient in order to stop these buildings from falling apart. £2million is required simply to stop the ceiling of the Victoria and Albert Mausoleum at Windsor from falling in! Let alone the leaking roof in the picture gallery, the east side of the quadrangle falling apart (£3million alone), the roofs at both Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace are also in need of replacement.

This doesn't even consider the need for redecoration of the state apartments which has been postponed indefinitely. The government needs to massively increase the funding for these jobs if it doesn't want to be embarrassed at the 2012 Olympics where no doubt Buckingham Palace will be a key component in showing off London to the world.

The government should already be embarrassed that Lancaster House, managed by the foreign office which was restored to its opulent best in the 1990s is in better condition than the principal palace of the Queen.

For more details see: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=200350&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20.

To view Buckingham Palace for yourself purchase the virtual tour of Buckingham Palace.

Queen to keep her view

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Unfortunately it does not look like the building policies are going to change in the near future so London skylines could continue to be ruined for some time to come.

For more details see: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23437053-details/Majestic+views+from+Buckingham+Palace+saved/article.do.

Want to see the gardens of Buckingham Palace for yourself? Purchase the virtual tour of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace crumbling

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Buckingham Palace is appealing to the Government to cover a massive shortfall in the maintenance funds available to them. Millions of pounds are needed to stop the Royal Palaces from crumbling. Over the past 15 years, the funding provided by the government for the maintenance of the Royal Palaces has decreased dramatically in real terms. This has resulted in the eastern side of the Buckingham Palace quadrangle beginning to crumble, the roof of the Picture Gallery leaking, the State Apartments needing redecoration and the ceiling of the Victoria and Albert Mausoleum falling down, just to name a few problems.

The eastern facade of the quadrangle was created in 1847 by Edward Blore to provide accommodation for Queen Victoria's growing family. Not only was it an architectural disaster, looking more like a train station than a Palace and closing off John Nash's magnificent entrance portico, but it was built from Caen stone. This deteriorated very quickly in the smoggy London air and within a few years had to be painted to stop the facade from crumbling. In 1913, the eastern front was refaced in Portland stone which wears very well in London. The eastern side of the quadrangle was not refaced and the 19 layers of paint are now beginning to crack, resulting in the facade falling to the ground at an ever increasing rate. Last year, a piece of the facade narrowly missed the Princess Royal's car and during a science exhibition at the Palace pieces of the centre arch collapsed. However, this problem will cost £3million to fix and would take five years.

It is not just Buckingham Palace that is collapsing, the Victoria and Albert Mausoleum at Windsor is also starting to crumble with pieces of the highly decorated ceiling starting to fall off. This project has been indefinitely delayed as it will cost around £2million.

Much more attention needs to be paid to the roofs at both Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. At Buckingham Palace, the nearly 100 year old glass roof of the picture gallery is starting to leak. Water stains have been seen on the silk of the walls of the picture gallery which means it's not just getting through the roof, but also the glass ceiling of the Picture Gallery. Ironically, the previous ceiling of the Picture Gallery was removed and replaced with the more modern and ugly roof in 1914 because it was leaking! The cost of fixing the roof is estimated at £1.8million.

The rest of the roofing at Buckingham Palace is now over 120 years old and is in need of replacement. At Windsor Castle, the roofs of the Upper Ward need replacement, but are being patched at present. One cannot over emphasise the disaster that would occur if a major leak occurred. At the Picture Gallery in Buckingham Palace in particular are some of the most valuable paintings in the world.

Of more concern to visitors of the Palace, the State Apartments are in desperate need of redecoration and this has also been postponed indefinitely, even though the cost is only £600,000 per year. Walking through the State Apartments in their current condition is slightly depressing with the rooms desperately needing to be regilded in order to return them to the glorious richness of effect originally intended. This effect can be seen clearly at Windsor Castle where the rooms which were destroyed by fire in 1992 are an exceptional tribute to the talent of the workmen involved and the vision of King George IV.

The Palace is requesting an increase in funding of £1million per year, so they can try and clear this major backlog of maintenance which has developed because of very careful management by the Queen's financial team who have tried to live within an impossible budget.

For more information on this story, including a video, please see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6250432.stm

The virtual tour of Buckingham Palace from palacevirtualtours.com allows you to explore the rooms and artwork discussed in this article. You can see the new and the old ceiling of the Picture Gallery and learn more about the quadrangle and its history. An evaluation version of the tour is available for free download.

Women guarding Royal Palaces for the first time

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700

For the first time women soldiers are guarding Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. At Windsor Castle, there are five women soldiers, part of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, and at Buckingham Palace Captain Chloe Madden of the Army Air Corps has made history by being the first female to guard the world's most famous palace.

For more information on this story, see Women on guard at Queen's residences .

Queen's Guard to be reduced?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700

The British Army are facing some major financial challenges as the cost of continuing to fight the Iraq war grows. Defence bosses are understood to be considering reducing the 2000 troops that guard the Queen at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace down to 1300. This would allow them to be re-allocated to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The troops at the Palaces are generally ceremonial and stand for hours at a time.

Rare look inside the Queen's Wine Collection

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0700

The Queen has allowed the Telegraph newspaper a rare glimpse inside the wine cellars of the Palace. At least some of the structures of the cellars date back to the Duke of Buckingham, one of the earlier owners of the House. Today the cellars hold over £2million worth of wine.

The newspaper was allowed access in order to promote the Palace's energy saving initiatives. Over the next few months the cellars will be cooled by water taken from below the Palace. The bore used for this cooling was created in 2002 to provide air conditioning for the new Queen's Gallery. The Palace are now expanding the use of this bore to provide cooling for additional areas of the Palace, including the 300 year old wine cellars.

For more information see : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/05/nwine05.xml

New TVs at Buckingham Palace

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Apparently the Queen has ordered 100 new LCD and Plasma Televisions for Buckingham Palace from Samsung. The details of the specific sets ordered have not been made available but Samsung have commented that if they stay in use for 5 years, they would get the right to use the Royal Warrant on their products. According to reports, this is the first time the Royal Family have paid for televisions, with previous sets being donated.

For more details see: http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/15/buckingham-palace-orders-100-samsung-flat-panels-to-watch-uks-t/

Several members of the Royal Family live at Buckingham Palace. It is the principal London home of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as the Duke of York, the Princess Royal and the Earl and Countess of Wessex. The Queen has a suite of private apartments on the north side of the Palace, whilst her children have apartments on the East Front. You can visit the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's Private Apartments as part of the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour.

Birds change call in Buckingham Palace Garden

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Great Tits, a kind of bird resident in Buckingham Palace Garden have been found to make a distinctly different call in this urban environment than in more rural settings. Buckingham Palace is set in the bustling heart of Central London and noise levels in the garden from the surrounding traffic mean that in order to be heard, the Great Tits have had to adapt their calls.

For more information on this story, see Palace great tits learn to sing louder to cope with the noise of city life.

The Buckingham Palace Garden is the largest private garden in London with a size of around 40 acres, including a 4 acre lake. It is home to a variety of bird and aquatic life, and connected with the surrounding great parks of London, provides a safe haven for animal life in one of the world's busiest cities. For more information on the Palace Garden, including photos, you can purchase the Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour.