Palace opens ‘room with the view’ to visitors
Public offered guided tours to unseen areas of monarch’s residence – including a peak at balcony
THE image of the Royal family waving to crowds from the Buckingham Palace balcony is embedded in the national conscience.
Now, for the first time, members of the public will have the chance to take in the view as the East Wing of the palace is opened to visitors.
Guided tours will take in the Centre Room, which leads on to the platform. Although there is no access on to the balcony itself, visitors will be able to peek through the net curtains to experience the view enjoyed by the King and Queen.
A palace insider said: “Visitors won’t be able to step out on to the balcony but they will certainly experience the impact and the atmosphere, as well as the view from the window.” The decision to open up the East Wing reflects the King’s desire to make royal residences more accessible to the public.
It follows the announcement that Balmoral is also to be opened up for the first time, allowing visitors a glimpse into some of the rooms where Queen Elizabeth II spent her final days.
Tickets, costing between £100 and £150, sold out in less than 24 hours, with the Balmoral website briefly crashing because of demand.
The East Wing of Buckingham Palace, which encompasses the front facade, has never before been opened to the public. It was built between 1847 and 1849 after Queen Victoria commissioned the architect Edward Blore to increase the accommodation for her growing family.
The build, enclosing what had previously been an open, horseshoe-shaped courtyard, was funded by the sale of the Royal Pavilion, George IV’S seaside retreat in Brighton, in 1850.
First occupied by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children, it is still used by the Royal family for official
‘The newly refurbished rooms are so beautiful’
meetings and events. Small groups of visitors, led by expert guides, will be able to stroll through the rooms on the Principal Floor, furnished with highlights from the Royal Collection.
Tours will wind their way along the corridor, which runs the length of the wing and is home to paintings by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Franz Xaver Winterhalter. In the Yellow Drawing Room, decorated with recently restored Chinese hand-painted wallpaper from the 18th century, visitors will see two hexagonal, nine-tiered porcelain pagodas and the Kylin clock, which incorporates two turquoise lions.
Tours will conclude in the Centre Room, which leads on to the balcony, where highlights include a newly restored glass chandelier, shaped to resemble a lotus flower, and two Chinese 18th-century imperial silk wall hangings, presented to Queen Victoria in 1897 by Emperor Guangxu to mark her Diamond Jubilee.
The wing will be opened to the public following extensive refurbishment which began in 2018. The works are part of a 10-year programme to upgrade the building. The current phase, which began last summer, involves the removal of about 70,000 objects from the North Wing before two years of building work. Conversations about the prospect of guided tours in the East Wing began about two years ago, with sources revealing that it felt like a “good opportunity” to widen access as the newly refurbished rooms are “so beautiful”.
A limited number of East Wing Highlights Tours will run daily throughout July and August, beginning on July 15.
The tours must be booked with a standard admission ticket to the State Rooms, with the combined ticket costing £75. Tickets will go on sale on April 9, with priority given to Royal Collection Trust email subscribers before the remaining tickets go on general sale the following day.
The palace will be open seven days a week throughout July and August for the first time since 2019, returning to five days a week in September.
The Royal Collection Trust looks after the artwork amassed by monarchs. As a charity, it does not receive public money, which is why its finances were severely affected during the pandemic.
However, last summer it returned to profit for the first time since Covid – making £8 million over 12 months.
‘Visitors won’t be able to step out on to the balcony but they will experience the atmosphere and view from the window’