palacevirtualtours.com News:Windsor Castle

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

Queen to have own fire fighting force

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Queen is so worried about cutbacks at the Windsor fire station that she is understood to be planning to employ her own fire surveillance staff at Windsor Castle.

Fire safety is very important for The Queen who had to spend £40 million restoring part of the state and private apartments after a fire there in 1992. She is not the only resident of Windsor concerned about cutbacks at the fire station. Other famous residents including Sir Elton John have signed a petition sent to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

To learn more about the rooms destroyed by the 1992 fire, you can purchase the Windsor Castle Virtual Tour.

For more information on the story: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/royalwatch/news/article_1425275.php/Queen_Elizabeths_fire-fighters

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.

Power scheme back on

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Queen is supporting a revised scheme to provide power to Windsor Castle via a hydroelectric power plant on the river Thames. The new plans will provide more power, whilst also being cheaper. Another important advantage is that it will allow fish to continue to swim through the river, unlike many hydroelectric projects which stop fish from travelling through the dam.

Windsor Castle is the largest occupied castle and the world, and as such uses a substantial amount of power. The revised scheme, whilst more powerful, will still only provide one third of the castle’s power usage.

For more information on this story, see Queen To Go Green

You can learn more about Windsor Castle by purchasing the Windsor Castle Virtual Tour

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.

Prince of Wales exhibition at Windsor

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

From 16^th of May 2008 ~ 22^nd of February, 2009, visitors to Windsor Castle will be able to see a special exhibition of photographs of the life of the Prince of Wales.

The exhibition is displayed in the Drawings Gallery which the visitor passes as they enter the State Apartments prior to ascending the Grand Staircase. A new book entitled Charles, Prince of Wales - A Birthday Souvenir Album accompanies the exhibition.

In November, the Prince of Wales will turn 60. This exhibition celebrates that event. Other events planned to celebrate his birthday include a reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by The Queen.

For more information on the story: Celebrating 60 years of HRH The Prince of Wales

Queen’s 82nd birthday

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today marks the Queen’s 82^nd birthday. As usual she is spending the day at Windsor Castle. It is officially recognized during Queen’s Birthday weekend in June.

For more details: see: http://www.streem.com.au/articles/News/4796/Queen-marks-82nd-birthday-at-Windsor

To learn more about Windsor Castle and the magnificent private apartments where the Queen lives, by purchasing the Windsor Castle Virtual Tour.

Queen meets Aussie PM

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has visited The Queen at Windsor Castle. He met The Queen in the White Drawing Room, part of the suite of Private Apartments where The Queen lives when at Windsor Castle.

But the news story was not about Rudd meeting The Queen, it was about the fact that he did not bow when meeting her. Although it is not required, it is deemed respectful to bow your head when you meet a member of the Royal Family.

Australia has been considering becoming a Republic for some period of time, but a referendum held in 1999 retained the monarchy. Unlike previous Prime Minister John Howard, Kevin Rudd is a republican. It is inevitable that at some stage the issue will be debated in Australia again, but some people feel that the issue should be delayed until after The Queen’s death.

To learn more about the White Drawing Room you can purchase the Virtual Tour of Windsor Castle.

For more information on this story: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rudd-didnt-bow/2008/04/09/1207420454246.html

Plane noise could get worse

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Visitors to Windsor Castle could not fail to notice the impact of the countless planes flying to and from Heathrow Airport. In fact, so surprised were some American tourists that the castle was on a flight path, they asked why The Queen built her castle under a flight path!

New government documents indicate the situation will get much worse if a third runway is added at Heathrow Airport. Ironically, The Queen, struggling for funds to maintain her palaces, may be entitled to a grant to install double glazing and noise insulation!

For more information about this story: Heathrow runway expansion will deafen the Queen

You can learn more about Windsor Castle by purchasing the Windsor Castle Virtual Tour

PM lost in Windsor Castle

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you often get lost in large buildings spare a thought for Gordon Brown the British Prime Minister. Apparently he managed to get lost in Windsor Castle on the way to a state banquet! His absence was noticed by several guests including Her Majesty the Queen, who was heard to comment “Has the Prime Minister got lost?”. The story goes that he got lost in a corridor whilst trying to find a route to the table in St Georges Hall. This doesn't seem a partially likely story as Windsor Castle as least on the principal floor is very well organised and relatively easy to follow, much of the back rooms having been redesigned after the fire of 1992. However, if he had got lost in Buckingham Palace and was never seen from again, no one would be surprised, as the palace is a miss mash of various rooms built on top of each other since the Duke of Buckingham's time 300 years ago. There is a rumor that even Queen Mary managed to get lost in the vast corridors of the palace!

Downing Street denies this story, blaming the Queen's staff “The Prime Minister always does what he is told on these occasions. He did not have any orientation problems.”

Had he actually got lost, he could have wandered down the Grand Corridor and explored the magnificent private apartments of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Should you which to explore these rooms you can.

For more details see: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/39438/One-s-PM-gets-lorst

You can see some of the magnificent silver furniture at Windsor Castle by purchasing the Windsor Castle Virtual Tour.

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.

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 .

Windsor Hydro Project is delayed

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700

The Windsor Hydro Project which is intended to provide 1/3 of the power to Windsor Castle, at the cost of around £1m has been delayed again. The project was expected to be completed by the end of 2006 but work is still not moving forward. This is one of a number of "green" projects the Royal Household are working on to ensure the Queen is as environmentally friendly as possible.

For more information on this story, see Windsor hydro project hits delays

Queen Victoria's Wedding Cake on display at Windsor Castle

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

As part of the celebrations of the Queen's Diamond Wedding Jubilee (60 years), the Royal Collection are displaying a number of wedding related memorabilia at Windsor Castle from April. Included in this display is a piece of Queen Victoria's Wedding Cake, now 167 years old! There are also photographs and other items from the weddings of Edward VII, George V, George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II.

The exhibition continues until March 2008 and is situated in the Drawings Gallery at Windsor Castle. This Gallery is at the top of the Entrance Steps to the State Apartments.

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.