Buckingham Palace
The graceless
colossus of Buckingham Palace, popularly
known as "Buck House", has served as the monarch's
permanent London residence only since the accession
of Victoria.
Buckingham Palace Bought by George III in 1762, the Buckingham Palace building was
overhauled by Nash in the late
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1820s, and again by Aston Webb in time for George
V's coronation in 1913, producing a palace that's about
as bland as it's possible to be.
For two months of the year, the hallowed portals are grudgingly
nudged open; timed tickets are sold from the marquee like
box office in Green Park at the western end of
The Mall.
The interior, however, is a bit of an anticlimax: of the
palace's 660 rooms you're permitted to see around twenty,
and there's little sign of life, as the Queen decamps
to Scotland every summer.
For the other ten months of the year there's little to do here, as the Buckingham Palace
is closed to
visitors not that this deters the crowds who mill around the
railings, and gather in some force to watch the Changing
of the Guard, in which a detachment of the Queen's
Foot Guards marches to appropriate martial music from St James's
Palace (unless it rains, that is).
From spring 2002, the public also are able to view the best
of the Royal Collection at the rebuilt, greatly expanded
Queen's Gallery, on the south side of the palace. Among
the highlights are works by Michelangelo, Reynolds,
Gainsborough, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Rubens,
Rembrandt and Canaletto, as well as the odd
Fabergé egg and heaps of Sèvres china.
There's more pageantry on show at the Nash
built Royal Mews, further along Buckingham Palace
Road. The royal carriages, lined
up under a glass canopy in the courtyard, are the main attraction,
in particular the Gold Carriage, made for George III in
1762, smothered in 22 carat gilding and weighing four tons,
its axles supporting four life size figures.
Extract from The Rough Guide To London. Written by
Rob Humphreys, London: Rough Guides Ltd, 2000.
Amazon eBay:
1 The Mall is the principal ceremonial route from the West End of London to
the London residence of the monarch. It was originally laid out for Charles
II in the 1660s, forming part of the landscape design for St James’s Park,
and was transformed into its current state in the early 1900s.
The Mall to Buckingham Palace – wider context
7 Linear View: The Mall to Buckingham Palace
The Mall to Buckingham Palace – local context
Viewing Place 7A
The Mall: at Admiralty Arch
3 The Viewing Place on The Mall is at a point beneath the central section of
Admiralty Arch, on an island between the two carriageways. The symmetry
of the view to Buckingham Palace demands that this position be used as
the Assessment Point.
4 The viewer stands within a large expanse of red tarmac in order to
experience the view. In the foreground on the park side is the Citadel, an
imposing, fortified element. The avenue of trees marks the beginning of
the middle ground of this view, and takes the viewer’s eye along the full
length of The Mall to the Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace. In
addition to the trees lining the route, flagpoles on both sides contribute
to the perspective of the view.
5 The view towards Buckingham Palace is vulnerable to intrusion in the
front and middle ground. Visual management guidance paragraph 3.40
Landscape management in the foreground should be considered in
conjunction with the management of trees on The Mall.
6 Qualitative Visual Assessment will be used to assess the visual impact
of development on the Townscape View from this Assessment Point.
The view is subject to Qualitative Visual Assessment process as described
in Chapter 3.
7 Buckingham Palace is the focus of the view. The Victoria Memorial in the
foreground is a prominent structure.
Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt
mysteries are perhaps the best loved of all
her Victorian bestsellers, luring us into the
multilayered richness of London, from the
great mansions and secluded drawing
rooms to the city’s festering slums. Now, in
her most mesmerizing novel yet, she invites
us to a house-party at Buckingham Palace.
The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs
and their wives to the palace to discuss a fantastic
idea: the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad
that would stretch the full length of Africa. But, alas, the
prince’s gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated
body of a prostitute hired for a late-night frolic (after
the wives have retired to bed) turns up among the
queen’s monogrammed sheets in a palace linen closet.
With a cast of wonderful characters, among them the
gentle Princess of Wales, and a twisting plot that takes
us into the hidden world of the royal family, Anne Perry
probes deeply the hearts of men and women ensnared
by their own emotions. Never has this distinguished
novelist told a story with more truth and passion.
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