Buckingham Palace closed?
 

I am visiting London next week and was planning on going to Buckingham Palace, but can only find visiting hours for July-September. Is the Palace closed to tourists during this time of year?

Yes, it only can be visited while the Queen is not at home :)

It is open the same time every year -- basically Aug/Sept (sometimes last weekend in July to first weekend in Oct)

Isn't and never has been open in March.

I haven't repeated the post..I swear it...

For most of the year the only parts that can be visited are the Art Gallery and the Royal Mews (horses and state coaches). The Palace itelf is open only when the Queen takes her long vacation in Scotland (most of Aug and Sept).

If you want to see the inside of a royal palace go to Windsor - parts of which are open all year.

amyers531, it seems that a lot of tourists expect to visit Buckingham, only to find it's not open for tourism most of the year. I was there last April, and a couple of people stopped me to ask how to get into the palace. I told them, "You don't, not in the month of April anyway."

For what it's worth, I know one person who went inside Buckingham and said it's not nearly as interesting as Windsor. Please take nytraveler's suggestion and make a day trip to Windsor if possible.

Dear P_M,

Buckingham Palace is absolutely wonderful. It is different to Windsor Castle, but still wonderful.
It was one of the most fabulous surprises of my trip to the UK - a memory I will treasure always.
I was lucky I was there at the right time - September.

Thanks for that info, it's amazing how people can visit the same place and have different opinions. :-) Despite what I heard from the other person, I would still go to Buckingham if given the opportunity, just for the experience of seeing it. Unfortunately I never get to London at the right time of year. :-(

I know the Royal Mews wasn't open last year when we were there in mid-March just checked the website and it doesn't open until March 24 (http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/de...icle&ID=31)

I've been to both Windsor and Buckingham and loved them both. One September I went to London with my husband when he had a business meeting and while he worked I went to BP and thought it was lovely. Then the next day I read in the papers that Prince Charles went into the public part of the palace and visited with people touring the Palace! I was so disappointed that I didn't meet him!

"I was so disappointed that I didn't meet him!"

Not one millionth as disappointed as you'd have been if you had.

"Not one millionth as disappointed as you'd have been if you had."

That was a good one. Thanks for the early am chuckle.

i enjoyed your comment,flanneruk, very witty!

well i did meet the Prince inadvertently. well not met but stood right next to him for several minutes with only a few folks around.

Was in Edinburgh - he made some unscheduled stop outside a theatre he would be at later that night.

far from being disappointed, it's one of the highlights of my travels even though i consider him to be a bafoon - can't understand why flanner's taxes have to pay for this lout to live the life of leisure. Or for any of the rather dim-witted royals for that matter.

Hi, Amyers,

looks like you'll have to make do with windsor - shame! Hampton court is also lovely and the boat trip [one way only as it takes an age] is also fun.

If it's any consolation, buck house is a bit OTT with the gold, though it does explain a lot about the queen's family - no-one could be normal after being brought up in that place.

have a great stay,

regards, ann

hahaha, annhig..that's why the King and the Queen of Spain didn't want to bring up their children at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Very sensible people, if you ask me :)

I don't think any British royal has raised any kids in Buckingham Palace or any other but rather shipped them off to some school for most of the year - a boot camp in Charly's case - i'm sure he missed the comfy confines of Buckingham Palace.

I don't know which option is the worst, PalenQ :)

PalenQ, flanner's taxes don't pay for Charles' upkeep. Charles' money comes from the Duchy of Cornwall.

I wonder if Charles pays taxes on the Duchy of Cornwall - do they pay any taxes at all?

or property taxes like others? I don't know but if he doesn't it's a subsidy from taxes.

The Queen i believe is on the dole? Or receives tax moneys to live her royal life?

palQ

only the queen doen't have to pay taxes. and recently she entered into an agreement to pay - which we then give back to her in the civil list.

don't expect her heirs to be paying inheritance tax though, unlike most of the rest of us - a sore point as house prices as up again, following the stock market problems.

regards, ann

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page4680.asp

The Queen gets a sum of money to cover the official jobs done by her frp, which she may cover expenses for other members of the family who take these jobs on. In return, the government receives the income from various Crown estates.

Tax is paid on the commercial operations of the Crown estates, as well as on the income from those private finances which are not part of the Crown estates.

There's a separate sum to support the buildings, art collections and so on (but the only reason why Buckingham Palace opened at all was to raise money to pay for the repairs to Windsor Castle). And there's always room for argument about what level of state ceremonial we really want.

Thanks annhig and PL in enhancing my understanding of these matters. Obviously i'm no fan of royalty but heck if UK wants one, it's a democractic country!

I wonder if there is any clamor for Buckingham Palace to be open more on a year-round basis, as it's part of the national patrimony, and at least to me should be more accessible to average bloke who pays for its upkeep apparently.

Or may the six weeks in late summer, when the queen's in Scotland is enough.

I believe when the Windsor fire happened and palace was reluctantly opened to tourists to help pay for repairs it was supposed to be a one or two off deal. But it now seems annually. Maybe that's enough to sate public appetite to see it.

Palaces, schmalaces. We've got rather a lot to be going on with, one way and another. But at the moment, BP is a combination of home, office and official hospitality suite - no doubt there are all sorts of ways to re-balance the different interests involved, but I wouldn't anticipate dramatic change. That's not the point of the institution anyway; 80-year-old ladies aren't on the whole inclined to fancy the idea; and their fussy middle-aged sons tend to have their eye on the inheritance. But you never know.

Hi, palQ,

Don't imagine there'll be much clamour to open it for longer [it's already open during the time she's on hols in July/aug] from us brits. Only people interested are the over 80s and tourists!

regards, ann

"I wonder if there is any clamor for Buckingham Palace to be open more on a year-round basis"

If you go to a BP garden party - as tens of thousands do every year - one way of getting in is through the gates in the Mall, across the front courtyard, then through the palace for a while to the garden outside. What's interesting is to watch how Middle England (most garden party guests are county councillors, long-standing charity workers and the like) behave as they go through the palace.

With remarkably little interest. Buckingham Palace isn't, and never has been, any more spectacular than the big houses (Blenheim, Chatsworth, Castle Howard, etc, etc, etc) Britain's grandest landowners threw up: if anything indeed, the opposite. And Middle England, as Patrick hints, is pretty familiar with the interiors of big 18th century houses, since visiting them at weekends is one of the country's most popular pastimes.

Buckingham Palace isn't the equivalent of the White House: it's merely the official residence of the Head of State - a political impotent. Nothing of any significance ever happens there, and there's no shortage of similar buildings, or of other things to see in London. So there's no real interest in seeing it.

Now eavesdropping on what happens in the official residence of the Head of Government. That would sell a few tickets.