59 Fun Facts About Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace lies in which London borough?

Westminster Abbey once owned the land: a Norman baron gave the manor to its monks, and it stayed theirs for centuries until Henry VIII acquired it in 1536.

Buckingham Palace takes its name from what?

A duke who built a house there: John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, put up Buckingham House in the early 1700s, and his townhouse still forms the core of the palace.

George III bought Buckingham House in the early 1760s as a private home for whom?

Queen Charlotte was the King's new bride, and the house gave the couple a private family home, away from the palace where the ceremony of court carried on.

Who sold Buckingham House some 40 years after its builder died?

His son, Charles Sheffield, was illegitimate: he came into the house because the builder's legitimate heir died young.

Under George III, Buckingham House became known by what name?

The Queen's House became hers by law in 1775, when an Act of Parliament settled it on the queen in exchange for her rights to Somerset House.

Ambassadors to Britain are accredited to the court of which palace?

St James's Palace. Henry VIII's red-brick palace was the monarch's main London home before Buckingham Palace, and the royal court kept its name after the move, so ambassadors still serve at the 'Court of St James's'.

Which Regent Street architect turned Buckingham House into a palace for George IV, only to be dismissed as costs spiralled?

John Nash. The overspend ended his career: he faced an official inquiry into the palace's cost and retired to his castle on the Isle of Wight.

Which London landmark was built as Buckingham Palace's grand front gateway, then moved to a corner of Hyde Park?

Marble Arch. It was designed as a triumphal arch celebrating Trafalgar and Waterloo, and it had to go when the new east wing was built across the open courtyard it guarded.

Who was the first monarch to live at Buckingham Palace?

Queen Victoria, who moved in just weeks into her reign in 1837. George IV died before his palace was finished, and his brother William IV never moved in.

William IV offered to convert Buckingham Palace into what after a fire in 1834?

A new Houses of Parliament. Fire had just destroyed the old one and the King had no wish to live in his unfinished palace, but the offer was declined and MPs rebuilt on their riverside site.

The sale of which royal residence helped pay for Buckingham Palace's new east wing in the 1840s?

Brighton Pavilion. George IV's seaside pleasure palace went to the town for £53,000, and the money helped build the wing that now carries the famous balcony.

Which flag flies over Buckingham Palace only when the monarch is in residence?

The Royal Standard. Until 1997 the pole stood bare whenever the monarch was away, but after public anger at the empty flagpole following Diana's death the Union Flag has flown in its place.

Which composer, Queen Victoria's favourite, played for her at Buckingham Palace several times in the 1840s?

Felix Mendelssohn. On one visit the Queen offered to sing her favourite of his songs, and he had to confess that it was really written by his sister Fanny.

With the widowed Queen long absent, what did a note on the palace railings offer?

The premises to be let or sold, 'in consequence of the late occupant's declining business'. The Queen had rarely set foot in London since Prince Albert's death in 1861, and the palace stood seldom used.

Which king redecorated Buckingham Palace's state rooms in a cream and gold Belle Époque style in the early 1900s?

Edward VII. He turned a neglected palace back into the centre of London society, though his 1902 coronation was delayed when he needed an emergency operation there.

Buckingham Palace's famous front was refaced for George V in which pale, hard-wearing English stone?

Portland stone. Aston Webb designed the new front as a backdrop to the Victoria Memorial that had just gone up outside the gates, and the tougher white rock replaced a softer stone.

Which new American genre did a visiting band play for George V at a Buckingham Palace command performance in 1919?

Jazz, played by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The assembled guests stared at them 'as though there were bugs on us', their leader recalled, until the King laughed and applauded.

In 1937 a special company of which youth organisation was set up inside Buckingham Palace for Princess Elizabeth?

The Girl Guides. The 1st Buckingham Palace Company was formed so the future queen could mix with girls her own age, and it recruited the daughters of courtiers and palace staff.

In the late 1930s George VI had a palace conservatory converted into what for his two young daughters?

A swimming pool. Elizabeth and Margaret had become keen swimmers, but within a couple of years a wartime bomb landed beside the new pool and it had to be rebuilt.

Who joined the King and Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony on VE Day?

Churchill. That evening the two princesses went out to join the celebrations unrecognised, and Elizabeth later recalled being swept along the streets on a tide of happiness and relief.

In 1940 the Queen said she was glad Buckingham Palace had been bombed, as she could now face which part of London?

The East End. Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, and the King stayed in London through the Blitz and toured the district's bombed streets, and sharing the danger won them lasting affection.

In 1940, how did pilot Ray Holmes stop a bomber seemingly bound for Buckingham Palace?

Ramming it with his own aircraft. Out of ammunition, he struck the Dornier's tail with his Hurricane, then parachuted to safety as the bomber spiralled down onto a London railway station.

What was built on the site of the bombed chapel and opened to the public in 1962?

The King's Gallery. The bomb-damaged ruin became a home for changing shows from the Royal Collection, and for its first six decades it was called the Queen's Gallery.

Opening the palace to paying visitors in 1993 funded repairs to which fire-damaged residence?

Windsor Castle. A public row over who should pay for the 1992 fire ended with the Queen meeting 70% of the bill, so she opened her London home to summer visitors at £8 a head.

How many rooms does Buckingham Palace have?

775. Only 19 of them are State Rooms; the rest include 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms, because the palace is a working headquarters as well as a home.

Who comes to Buckingham Palace for a private weekly audience with the monarch?

The Prime Minister. No minutes or recordings are ever made, so nobody else knows what is said, and a politically neutral monarch can still 'advise and warn' the head of the government.

Which is the largest room in Buckingham Palace, where state banquets are held?

The Ballroom. Around 170 guests dine there at a state banquet, and staff go round the table with a measuring stick so that every place setting gets the same 18 inches.

At a Buckingham Palace state banquet, guests sit at one table of which shape?

A horseshoe, with the monarch and the guest of honour at its head. Staff spend days laying it, and before the guests arrive the monarch comes in person to look the table over.

Which Buckingham Palace room was the backdrop for William and Catherine's official wedding photographs in 2011?

The Throne Room. The photographer's team moved in three days early and rehearsed against a stopwatch with palace staff standing in for the family, then kept the young bridesmaids and pageboys still with bowls of jelly beans.

Fewer than 40 paintings survive by which Dutch master, one of them hanging in Buckingham Palace?

Vermeer. George III bought the picture in 1762 as the work of a different Dutch painter, so one of only 34 or so known Vermeers joined the Royal Collection by accident.

Which monarch was born at Buckingham Palace, then sent out to school instead of being tutored there?

Charles III. He was born there in 1948, and his parents chose classrooms over a palace tutor: first Hill House, a London day school, then boarding at Cheam from the age of eight.

Elizabeth II's first three children were baptised in Buckingham Palace's Music Room using water brought from where?

The River Jordan, where Christ was baptised, which is why its water was carried to London. Prince William was baptised in the same room a generation later.

Which annual ceremony ends with the royal family appearing on Buckingham Palace's balcony?

Trooping the Colour. It marks the monarch's official birthday, held in June whatever the real date because a summer parade has a better chance of good weather.

Which ceremony brings a regimental band and marching soldiers into the Buckingham Palace forecourt several mornings a week?

Changing of the Guard. The sentries are no ceremonial extras: they are serving soldiers, and Household troops have guarded the sovereign and the royal palaces since 1660.

What is kept on the island in Buckingham Palace's garden lake?

Beehives. The bees make hundreds of jars of honey a year, and it goes to the palace kitchens for the royal chefs to cook with.

In 1958 Queen Elizabeth II abolished the court presentation of débutantes and replaced it with what?

Garden Parties. Around 8,000 guests now come to each one, invited for public service instead of pedigree, a long way from the young society women who once queued to curtsy to the monarch.

Which coach in the Royal Mews has been used at every coronation since William IV's in 1831?

The Gold State Coach. It weighs four tons and hangs on leather straps, so it pitches and sways even at walking pace, and monarchs have grumbled about the uncomfortable ride for generations.

The Mall, the ceremonial approach to Buckingham Palace, begins at which landmark beside Trafalgar Square?

Admiralty Arch. From there the dead-straight avenue runs to the palace gates, and over a million people packed it for the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.

Who broke into Buckingham Palace twice in 1982 and got into Queen Elizabeth II's bedroom?

Michael Fagan. Walking into the monarch's bedroom was then only a civil wrong, so he was never charged over it; on his first visit he had helped himself to half a bottle of palace wine.

How did the authorities finally stop 'the boy Jones' breaking into Buckingham Palace?

Sent him to sea. The teenager was once found hiding under a sofa near Queen Victoria's bedroom and kept coming back after jail, so officials had him pushed into the Royal Navy.

Which king planted mulberries on Buckingham Palace's site in the early 1600s, hoping to breed silkworms?

James VI and I. He is said to have picked the wrong kind of mulberry, since silkworms prefer the white variety, so English silk never took off and the plot became a public pleasure garden instead.

Buckingham Palace is held in trust for the nation, but which royal home is the monarch's own private property?

Balmoral Castle. The Scottish estate is a family possession handed down by inheritance, while Buckingham Palace is held by the monarch only as Sovereign and could never be sold or left in a will.

The £369 million overhaul of Buckingham Palace begun in 2017 mainly replaces what?

Ageing wiring and pipes. Much of it had gone untouched for some 60 years, and officials warned that the palace faced a 'catastrophic building failure' if nothing was done.

As of 2025, where in London does the King actually live while using Buckingham Palace as his working headquarters?

Clarence House. It had been his London home for two decades before he became King, and he stayed put, going to the palace for audiences, receptions and other official duties.

Thanks to George IV's taste for the exotic, the rooms behind Buckingham Palace's famous balcony are decorated in which style?

Chinese regency. George IV's Asian porcelain and furniture were moved into the new east wing, so the royals step onto the balcony from a Chinese-style saloon hung with a lotus-shaped chandelier.

Which lost London river, sharing its name with the city's notorious gallows, runs beneath Buckingham Palace?

The Tyburn. Once an open brook crossing the marshy site, it was buried long ago and now runs through the King's Scholars' Pond Sewer directly under the palace.

After their 2011 wedding reception, Prince William drove Kate out of Buckingham Palace in what kind of car?

Aston Martin. The vintage blue convertible was his father's, converted to run on bioethanol made from surplus English wine, and it left the gates decked with balloons and a 'JU5T WED' number plate.

In 2004 a fathers' rights protester spent five hours on a ledge beside Buckingham Palace's balcony dressed as which superhero?

Batman. He unfurled a banner for fathers' rights beside the spot where the royal family waves to the crowds, and police spent more than five hours trying to talk him down.

During Elizabeth II's reign, what sounded beneath her window for fifteen minutes each weekday morning at Buckingham Palace?

Bagpipes. The monarch's personal piper plays at 9am when the sovereign is in residence, a post created in the 1840s after a royal visit to the Scottish Highlands.

In May 1914, which campaigners marched on Buckingham Palace to petition the King?

Suffragettes. Emmeline Pankhurst led the deputation with a votes-for-women petition for George V, but she was arrested outside the gates before it could be delivered.

Which rock guitarist opened the Queen's 2002 Golden Jubilee concert by playing the national anthem on Buckingham Palace's roof?

Brian May. The Queen guitarist kicked off the concert with a solo 'God Save the Queen' from the rooftop, and twenty years later his band opened the Platinum Jubilee show outside the palace gates.

The tall fur caps worn by Buckingham Palace's sentries are made from the pelts of black bears from which country?

Canada. The Grenadier Guards adopted the towering caps in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, whose grenadiers had worn bearskins into battle.

For the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, which fictional character called on Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace?

James Bond. Daniel Craig collected her from the palace for a filmed helicopter dash across London, and stunt doubles of the pair then jumped out over the Olympic Stadium.

Buckingham Palace has specialist staff whose job is to look after its collection of hundreds of what?

Clocks. The palace's horologists wind them every week and work through the whole collection again each spring and autumn, when every one has to be put forward or back.

Buckingham Palace's largest reception, held once a year, is given in honour of which group?

Foreign diplomats. Their postings begin at the palace too: each new ambassador is collected in a ceremonial carriage and driven there to present credentials to the monarch.

Débutantes presented to the monarch at Buckingham Palace wore a headdress of feathers from which bird?

Ostrich. Three plumes were the rule, worn in the hair with a veil, and each young woman then had to sink into a curtsy before the monarch while managing a long train.

In Buckingham Palace's White Drawing Room, what is disguised as a mirror and cabinet?

A hidden door. Members of the Royal Family come through it into this state room, where they gather before receiving their guests on official occasions.

In the sketch that opened her Platinum Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace, what did the Queen keep in her handbag?

A marmalade sandwich. 'I keep mine in here, for later,' she told Paddington over tea, and the pair then tapped out a rock beat on their teacups to start the show.

How was the official notice of Prince George's birth in 2013 displayed to the crowds at Buckingham Palace?

On an easel. A bulletin signed by the doctors was brought from the hospital and set out in the forecourt, a time-honoured piece of royal theatre kept up even in an age of instant news.