Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

The Neoclassical movement emerged as a revival of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The movement came across as a kind of “back to the basics” mindset throughout European countries such as France, Italy, and Germany. Before the movement, Baroque architecture was in high demand. Big ornamental, unnecessarily decorated interiors and exteriors of buildings were popping up all over Europe. However, Baroque architecture never really appealed to the United Kingdom, so Neoclassicism in England was a bit different throughout the rest of Europe. In England, the revival of Greek and Roman architecture resulted in many governmental buildings resembling big temple like structures. The United Kingdom has always had a habit of wanting to be the best of the best. One of the most successful places full of rich beautiful architecture was the Roman Empire. The United Kingdom thought that, they could in fact be the new modern Roman Empire by implementing their architectural ideas and designs onto the buildings throughout their developing city. Much like many other buildings that emerged throughout this movement, Buckingham Palace is symmetrical, rational, very orthogonal, and resembles an ancient temple. It is the residence and political headquarters for the monarch in the United Kingdom in Westminster. Opened in 1703 standing at 79’-0” tall, the building consists of 775 rooms, including, 19 state rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. It is about 355’-0” long across the facade and goes back about 394’-0”. Buckingham Palace was designed and worked on by a number of architects including, John Nash, Edward Blore, Aston Webb, Thomas Cubitt, and the main one being William Winde. The buildings elevation has a  very dominant and vertical presence despite its very long facade. The building is very symmetrical and nothing out of the ordinary. It plays with scale in terms of windows to columns to entrances. Buckingham Palace is a symbol of government throughout the entire United Kingdom, it develops a strong presence of dominance without flaunting its wealth or higher status to the citizens of its countries and tourists who come to view it. Unlike the architectural pieces from the Baroque er throughout Europe, which took whatever money they had and projected it onto their houses and governmental buildings. The structure has served its purpose throughout world wars and hard economic times, developing it into a national symbol that represents the people of England without standing out, or doing anything different then the other neoclassical architectural structures throughout their nation. I believe the building was very successful in achieving a dominant pretense without flaunting it to others, something the Baroque period was unable to accomplish. However, Buckingham Palace is credited as one of the most boring governmental buildings in the world, especially for one in which a monarch claims residency. Overall, the building is a prime example of how Neoclassical architecture set out to revive the ideas of ancient Greek and Roman structures. 

“Buckingham Palace.” Cal Poly Architecture in London, 14 July 2012, cplondonarchitecture.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/buckingham-palace/.

Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/neoclassical-architecture-in-england.html.