Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace, official London residence of the British monarch since Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837. Buckingham Palace stands at the end of the Mall, a wide avenue leading from Trafalgar Square, and faces the Victoria Memorial, a statue of Queen Victoria set on a high plinth. The Royal Standard flies from the roof when the monarch is in residence, and the Changing of the Guard ceremony takes place in the palace forecourt every day from April to September and every other day from October to March.

Buckingham Palace was built for the Duke of Buckingham and Normandy in 1702-1705 and purchased by George III in 1762, although St James's Palace continued to be the official royal residence until the accession of Queen Victoria. The building, in Neo-Classical style, was remodelled by John Nash in 1825. In 1856 a ballroom was added and in 1913 Sir Aston Webb carried out alterations to the East Front, which faces the Mall. Marble Arch, a triumphal arch built by Nash in 1827, was the entrance to the palace until it was moved to the north-east corner of Hyde Park in 1851.

The palace has about 600 rooms and stands in 20 hectares (50 acres) of gardens. During the 1990s, in order to help fund the restoration of parts of Windsor Castle damaged in a fire in 1993, some of the state apartments were opened to the public for a limited period during the summer. However, this proved so popular with visitors that the practice of having an annual public opening continued after the original financial goals had been met. The Queen's Gallery and the Royal Mews, on the south side of the Palace, are both open to the public on a permanent basis. The former (on the site of a chapel hit in a World War II bombing raid) opened in 2002 to provide a venue for exhibitions of paintings and works of art from the Royal Collection. In the latter, state coaches and carriages are displayed, including the Gold State Coach, which has been used at every coronation since that of George IV in 1820. The stables, in which the Windsor Grey and Cleveland Bay carriage horses are kept, are also open to the public.