Buckingham Palace
Buckingham palace
is the official London residence of Her Majesty The Queen and as such is one of
the best known and most potent symbols of the British monarchy. Yet it has been
a royal residence for only just over two hundred and thirty years and a palace
for much less; and its name, known the world over, is owed not to a monarch but
to an English Duke.
Buckingham House
was built for John, first Duke of Buckingham, between 1702 and 1705. It was
sold to the Crown in 1762. Surprisingly, since it was a large house in a
commanding position, it was never intended to be the principal residence of the
monarch.
Although King
George III modernised and enlarged the house considerably in the 1760s and
17770s, the transformations that give the building its present palatial
character were carried out for King George IY by Nash in the 1820s, by Edward
Blore for King William IY and Queen Victoria in the 1830s and 40s, and by James
Pennethoooorne in the 1850s.
In the reign of
King Edward YII, much of the present white and gold decoration was substituted
for the richly coloured 19th century schemes of Nash and Blore; and in the
1920s, Queen Mary used the firm of White Allom to redecorate a number of rooms.
The rooms open to
visitors are used principally for official entertainment. These include
Receptions and State Banquets, and it is on such occasions, when the rooms are
filled with flowers and thronged with formally dressed guests and liveried
servants, that the Palace is seen at its most splendid and imposing. But of
course the Palace is also far more than just the London home of the Royal
Family and a place of lavish entertainment. It has become the administrative
centre of the monarchy where, among a multitude of engagements, Her Majesty
receives foreign Heads of State, Commonwealth leaders and representatives of
the Diplomatic Corps and conducts Investitures, and where the majority of the
Royal Houshold, consisting of six main Departments and a staff of about three
hundred people, have their offices.
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