Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the monarch, the backdrop to every royal photograph you have ever seen, and — despite appearances — primarily an office building.
What it is for
The palace has 775 rooms, of which only a handful are living quarters. The rest are offices, state rooms and staff accommodation. Around 800 people work there, running the monarch’s official business: correspondence, investitures, state visits, and the roughly 50,000 people who are invited through the doors each year for garden parties, receptions and banquets.
Charles III, notably, does not live there. He has kept Clarence House as his London home and uses the palace as a workplace, which has fuelled long-running speculation about the building’s future.
The balcony
The central balcony is the most famous small piece of architecture in Britain. It was first used by Queen Victoria in 1851, and appearances on it now mark every major national moment: coronations, jubilees, royal weddings, and Trooping the Colour, when the RAF flypast passes overhead.
Who appears on the balcony is a genuinely watched political signal. Charles III restricted the line-up to working royals only, and the omissions were noticed and analysed for weeks.
Visiting
The State Rooms open to the public for around ten weeks each summer, while the King is at Balmoral. Nineteen rooms are on the route — the Throne Room, the Picture Gallery, the Ballroom — furnished with a serious art collection. Tickets sell out well ahead.
The Royal Mews and the King’s Gallery are open more of the year, and the Mews is the underrated one: it houses the Gold State Coach, used at every coronation since 1831 and so uncomfortable that William IV compared riding in it to being aboard a ship in rough weather.
Outside the gates
Most visitors come for the Changing of the Guard and stand at the railings. Arrive at least 45 minutes early in summer, or watch from the Victoria Memorial steps for a better view over the crowd.
The building itself
Architectural opinion has never been kind to it. The east front — the bit everyone photographs — was refaced in 1913 in a plain Portland stone design, and critics have called it dull ever since. The palace is also in poor repair: a ten-year, £369 million programme of rewiring and replumbing is under way, replacing systems largely untouched since the 1950s.