Buckingham Palace has been the official London residence of the British monarch since 1837, when Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to live there. Today it’s the working office of the Crown as much as a home — the setting for state banquets, the daily Changing the Guard ceremony, and the balcony appearances that mark national occasions. Most of the 775-room palace is never open to the public, but the State Rooms welcome visitors for a few months each summer, and the forecourt ceremony can be watched, free, almost any day of the week.

History of Buckingham Palace

Buckingham House: The Duke’s Mansion (1703–1761)

Buckingham Palace did not begin as a palace at all. The site had formed part of the medieval Manor of Ebury, and in 1703 John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, commissioned the architect William Winde to build a large, red-brick townhouse there for his own use. Known as Buckingham House, it was a handsome but comparatively modest three-storey mansion, built to overlook what would later become St James’s Park. According to the Royal Collection Trust, the site’s connection to the Crown goes back further still, to the reign of James I in the early 17th century, when part of the land was used to cultivate mulberry trees for a planned silk industry.

George III and the “Queen’s House”

In 1761, King George III bought Buckingham House from the Buckingham family, intending it not as a formal royal palace but as a comfortable private retreat for his wife, Queen Charlotte, close to the official court at nearby St James’s Palace. Fourteen of the couple’s fifteen children were born there, and the building became known informally as the Queen’s House. At this stage it remained a family home rather than the seat of the monarchy — that transformation was still decades away.

George IV, John Nash, and the Transformation Into a Palace

George IV, on becoming king in 1820, decided the house should become a full royal palace rather than a private residence, and hired the architect John Nash to carry out the transformation. Nash more than doubled the building’s size, adding the grand suite of State Rooms and neoclassical façades modelled on French and Italian palace design, working around a central courtyard. His ambitions ran well ahead of his budget: costs spiralled so far out of control that Nash was dismissed from the project in 1830, shortly before George IV’s own death, and the king never lived to see the palace finished.

George IV’s brother and successor, William IV, showed little interest in moving in at all — he reportedly considered giving the unfinished palace away, at one point offering it as a new home for Parliament after the old Palace of Westminster burned down in 1834. The offer was declined, and the palace remained empty of a full-time royal resident for years after Nash’s work was complete.

Queen Victoria: The First Monarch to Live at Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria changed that immediately. On her accession in 1837, she became the first British monarch to make Buckingham Palace her official London residence, moving the royal household there from St James’s Palace within weeks of taking the throne. The palace she inherited, however, was already too small for a working monarchy and a growing family: Victoria and Prince Albert had the architect Edward Blore add a new east range in the 1840s, enclosing the central quadrangle on its fourth side and creating, for the first time, the public-facing front the palace is known by today. This new wing forced the relocation of Marble Arch, which had originally stood as the palace’s ceremonial entrance and was moved to its present site near Speaker’s Corner in 1851.

Aston Webb and the Portland Stone East Front (1913)

The palace’s familiar white stone face — the one seen behind the Victoria Memorial in almost every photograph — is younger than most visitors assume. Blore’s 1850s east front had been built in a softer stone that weathered badly in London’s polluted air, so in 1913 the architect Sir Aston Webb refaced it entirely in Portland stone, giving the palace both its current frontage and its famous central balcony, the site of royal appearances ever since.

Buckingham Palace in the Second World War

The palace was bombed nine times during the Second World War, most seriously in September 1940, when a German air raid destroyed the palace chapel. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) chose to remain in London throughout the Blitz rather than relocate to safety, a decision widely credited with strengthening the public’s bond with the monarchy during the war. The bombed chapel site was later rebuilt as The King’s Gallery, which still hosts the Royal Collection’s changing exhibitions today.

Buckingham Palace Today: King Charles III

Buckingham Palace has been the London home and official working office of every British monarch since Victoria, including King Charles III following his accession in 2022. The palace has been undergoing a major, multi-year reservicing programme to renew ageing electrical wiring, plumbing and heating that in places still dated to the 1950s — a scale of works the Royal Household has said is necessary to keep the building safe and functioning as both a family home and a national institution for generations to come.

Buckingham Palace Architecture & the Gates

The palace’s style is best described as neoclassical — the language Nash gave it in the 1820s, layered over the original Georgian house and the later Victorian and Edwardian additions. Symmetry, columns, pediments and classical detailing dominate the exterior, while the State Room interiors lean more heavily on Nash’s French and Italian influences: gilding, marble, mirrors and elaborate plasterwork designed to impress rather than simply to furnish a home.

The palace’s forecourt, railings and famous gates weren’t part of the original design at all — they weren’t added until 1911, as part of the same building programme that produced the Victoria Memorial directly opposite. The principal entrance points are the North Centre and South Centre Gates flanking the forecourt, through which the Old and New Guard detachments enter during the Changing the Guard ceremony, and the Grand Entrance on the palace’s inner quadrangle side, used for state and ceremonial arrivals rather than public access.

Visiting Buckingham Palace: Practical Information

Verified against the official Royal Collection Trust website, checked 4 September 2026.

Opening Dates & Times (2026)

The State Rooms are open to the public for a limited window each summer, when the King is not in official residence. In 2026 this runs 9 July to 27 September. Timed entry slots run at 12.15pm, 3.15pm and 5.15pm daily from 9 July to 31 August, and at 12.15pm and 3.15pm Thursday to Monday from 3 to 27 September (closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays that month). Outside this window, standard State Rooms admission isn’t generally available, though the Palace offers a small number of Exclusive Guided Tours on selected dates in autumn when the main visitor season ends.

Ticket Prices

Category	Booked in advance	On the day
Adult (25+)	£33.00	£37.00
Young Person (18–24)	£21.50	£24.50
Child (5–17)	£16.50	£18.50
Disabled visitor	£16.50	£18.50
Access companion	Free	Free
Under 5	Free	Free

Booking in advance is meaningfully cheaper than paying on the day, and visitors on Universal Credit or certain other named UK benefits can book £1 tickets directly through the Royal Collection Trust. Combined tickets are also available pairing the Palace with the Royal Mews (10% off both) or with a guided Garden Highlights Tour or East Wing Tour, at additional cost.

Address & Postcode

Buckingham Palace’s postal address is Buckingham Palace, London, SW1A 1AA. The palace sits at the western end of The Mall, facing the Victoria Memorial, with Buckingham Palace Road running along its southern side toward Victoria — the road that gives its name to the wider SW1 area around Victoria station, though the palace itself fronts onto Green Park and St James’s Park rather than directly onto Buckingham Palace Road.

Nearest Station

• St James’s Park (District, Circle lines) — roughly 7 minutes’ walk, the closest Underground station to the main visitor entrance.
• Green Park (Piccadilly, Victoria, Jubilee lines) — about 8 minutes’ walk, useful if arriving from the West End.
• Victoria (District, Circle, Victoria lines, plus National Rail) — around 10–12 minutes’ walk down Buckingham Palace Road, and the best option if arriving by train from outside London.

How Long to Allow

Budget around two hours for a self-guided State Rooms visit, including the walk through the garden on exit. Add extra time if you’ve booked a Garden Highlights or East Wing add-on tour, and allow at least 30–45 minutes beforehand if you also want a good viewing spot for the Changing the Guard ceremony on a day it’s running.

Accessibility

Concessionary tickets are available for disabled visitors, with a free access companion ticket bookable online. The standard admission route is not step-free, so wheelchair users needing step-free access must pre-book this directly with the Royal Collection Trust’s Specialist Sales team, who can also arrange accessible parking with sufficient notice. Assistance dogs are welcome, accessible toilets and limited seating are available, and the multimedia guide is offered in British Sign Language with subtitles, plus an audio-descriptive version for blind or partially-sighted visitors. As the tour runs through several large rooms over two floors and exits via an outdoor gravel path, it’s worth noting the State Rooms can get very warm inside during summer opening.

Managing Body

Buckingham Palace is the working residence of the Sovereign and remains part of the Crown Estate rather than being personally owned by the King. Public visits to the State Rooms are organised and ticketed by Royal Collection Trust, the charity responsible for caring for the Royal Collection and the palace’s ceremonial interiors; income from tickets goes toward conserving the collection rather than to the Royal Household directly.

Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace

Guard Change Schedule

Per the official Household Division calendar, the King’s Guard changes at Buckingham Palace on a set weekly pattern: Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11am, with a separate Sunday Parade at 10am that incorporates the Regimental Colour into the ceremony. On days without a full changeover, the Guard is still formally inspected by the Captain at 3pm as part of a centuries-old tradition dating to Henry VIII. The full ceremony — from the New Guard forming up at Wellington Barracks to the final march away — takes around 45 minutes, though the core handover in the palace forecourt is shorter. Watching is entirely free and doesn’t require a Palace ticket, but the schedule can change or be cancelled at short notice, particularly in wet weather or during major state events, so it’s always worth checking the Household Division’s own calendar the day before you plan to go.

The London Buckingham Palace Guards

The soldiers seen outside Buckingham Palace are working members of the Household Division’s five Foot Guards regiments — the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards — who rotate the ceremonial duty alongside their operational military roles. Despite appearances, they are not ornamental: the bearskin caps, red tunics and rifles are genuine issue, and the guards are trained soldiers who have often served on active deployment. Each regiment is distinguishable by small uniform details, including the spacing of tunic buttons and the colour of the bearskin plume, details worth looking for if you want to identify which regiment is on duty on a given day.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many metres is Buckingham Palace?

According to the Royal Family’s official website, the building is 108 metres long across the front, 120 metres deep including the central quadrangle, and 24 metres high.

Can you go inside Buckingham Palace?

Yes, but only for part of the year. The State Rooms open to visitors for around ten weeks each summer (9 July–27 September in 2026), plus a small number of Exclusive Guided Tour dates in early autumn. Outside these windows, the palace is not open to standard public admission — a fact that catches out a lot of visitors expecting a year-round museum.

What is Buckingham Palace’s postcode?

The palace’s postal address is Buckingham Palace, London, SW1A 1AA.

Is Buckingham Palace worth seeing at night?

Yes — while you can’t enter after dark, the floodlit East Front and Victoria Memorial are a popular photography spot in the evening, when the crowds from the daytime Changing the Guard ceremony have thinned out considerably. Golden hour just before floodlighting kicks in tends to give the most flattering light on the stonework.

How many rooms does Buckingham Palace have?

775 in total, including 19 State Rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. Only the 19 State Rooms are ever opened to the public.

Is Buckingham Palace free to visit?

Watching the Changing the Guard ceremony from outside the railings is free. Entering the State Rooms is not — tickets start at £16.50 for children and disabled visitors, and £33 for adults booked in advance, though £1 tickets are available for visitors on Universal Credit and certain other named benefits.

Buckingham Palace sits within easy walking distance of several other Chronicle Trails guides worth combining into the same day — the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben are a short walk down Birdcage Walk, while the Tower of London makes a natural royal-history pairing further east. For more on the country the palace has presided over since 1837, see our England guide, and for the full spread of London’s ticketed royal and historic sites, browse our Royal Palaces guides.