Buckingham Palace (London): 1703

Buckingham Palace (London): 1703 

  

Buckingham Palace is a London residence and administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Its located in the City of Westminster. The palace is used for state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British people at times of happiness and mourning. 

The building was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. In the 19th century, it was enlarged by John Nash and Edward Blore, who constructed three wings around a central courtyard. The palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.  The palace is symmetrical and orthogonal and looks like an ordinary palace. Its considered one of the most boring governmental buildings in the world.

  

The palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb during World War II. The original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which survived. Many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture from the Royal Pavilion and the Carlton House. The palace has 775 room and the garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms are used for official and state entertaining and are open to the public each year. 

The site had a marshy ground that was watered by the river Tyburn, which still flows below the courtyard and south wing of the palace. Ownership of the site changed many times which included Edward the Confessor and then Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror, etc. 

Various owners leased it from royal landlords which was the subject of frenzied speculation during the 17th century. It had fallen into decay and the area became a wasteland. Needing money, James I sold off part of the Crown freehold but retained part of the site which he established a 4-acre garden for the production of silk. Eventually, in the late 17th century, the freehold was inherited from the property tycoon Sir Hugh Audley. 

      The palace contains over 830,000 sq ft of floorspace. There are 775 rooms, including 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 52 principal bedrooms, and 19 state rooms. It also has a post office, cinema, swimming pool, doctors and jewelers workshop. Directly underneath the State Apartments are the less grand semi-state apartments. These rooms are used for less formal entertaining, such as luncheon parties and private audiences. At the center of this suite is the Bow Room which thousands of guests pass annually to the Queens Garden Parties. At the center of this wing is the famous balcony with the center room behind its glass doors. This is a Chinese style saloon enhanced by Queen Mary, who worded with the designer Sir Charles Allom, created a more "binding" chinese theme in the late 1920s. 

      When paying a visit to Britain, heads of state are usually impressed by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. They are situated in a large suite of rooms known as the Belgian suite. The rooms of the suite are linked by narrow corridors. The Belgian rooms were decorated in their present style and named Leopold I, first King of the Belgians. 

Works Cited 

The Royal Residences > Buckingham Palace > History, 11 Sept. 2013, web.archive.org/web/20100328161802/http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalResidences/BuckinghamPalace/History.aspx. 

Davies, Christie. "“Canaletto & the Art of Venice”." New Criterion, vol. 36, no. 1, Sept. 2017, pp. 47-49.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Buckingham Palace.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 Dec. 2017, www.britannica.com/topic/Buckingham-Palace.