Buckingham Palace - London

This photo of Buckingham Palace in London is part of one of the panoramic images found on the PanoramicEarth.com Tour of London. There are over 100 images taken from around London linked to an interactive map.

Plan your visit to London by taking advantage of these London Hotel Specials or Thomson City Breaks.

Well, we all know Buckingham Palace is one of the most famous landmarks in the world, let alone London, so where to begin. Home sometimes of the Queen, the Changing of the Guard and Trooping of the Colour, Palace garden parties and the British Honours List. This aside it is also the administrative centre of the British monarchy, and an effective, if mostly private, museum of a huge number of important works of art, the Royal Collection.

Mostly private, because some parts of Buckingham Palace are, at some times, open to the public and each year over 50,000 book tickets to wonder through some of the State Rooms. Tickets for this are available outside the Palace.

Buckingham Palace is situated at the Western end of the Mall, next to St. James Park and Green Park. Since 1660 Buckingham Palace and the other Royal Palaces have been guarded by the Household Troops. Like the palace, the Household Troops are famous the world over dressed in full uniform of red tunics, black trousers and bearskins (the famous black ‘hat’)

Loads of tourist time their visit to London around the Changing of the Guard, where new soldiers march from Wellington Barracks via Horse Guards Parade and then up the Mall to the place in the forecourt. The Old Guards hand over in the Palace courtyard and then proceeds back to the barracks. This takes place at 11:30 every day in the summer, and every other day in the winter and lasts about 45 minutes

The original building was called Buckingham house, built in 1703 but has been enlarged and expanded several times in the following 300 years. It has been worked on by numerous architectes including John Nash and Aston Webb (see Admilraty Arch) The last major changes of the late 19th and early 20th Century saw the addition of a large East wing facing The Mall, At this time the State Entrance (Marble Arch) was moved to it’s current location at the top of Hyde Park. The final changes happened in 1911-13 when the Victoria Memorial was sited in front of the palace and the East Front was faced in Portland Stone . Buckingham Palace became the official royal palace of the British monarch when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837.

The full panoramic image of the façade of Buckingham Palaces and the area around including the Victoria Memorial can be found on the London tour by PanoramicEarth.com. An enlargement of this photo can be found on Flickr.

For more articles on London see the London Index or select one of the labels at the bottom.