Palace fit for a queen

It was my first visit to the UK and on day one, when I made my way to Buckingham Palace, I was amazed to be greeted by the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, who was celebrating his 88th birthday before heading off with the Queen to catch the royal train overnight to Dorset.

Despite the advancing years, the Prince remains active and in astonishingly rude health.

Last April, he became the longest-serving consort in British history, overtaking the record of 57 years and 70 days set by Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III.

For much of the year, Buckingham Palace is used by the Queen and other members of the royal family for official functions and events.

Rooms of royalty

I was taken on a tour of the palace and its State Rooms, which are open to visitors during the annual summer opening in August and September, when Her Majesty is in residence at Balmoral Castle.

George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife, Queen Charlotte, to use as a comfortable family home close to St James's Palace, where many court functions were held.

Buckingham House became known as the Queen's House and 14 of George III's 15 children were born there, according to officials.

In 1762, work began on remodelling the house to the king's requirements, to designs by Sir William Chambers, at a cost of £73,000 (Dh443,448).

George IV, on his accession in 1820, decided to reconstruct the house into a pied-à-terre, using it for the same purpose as his father, George III.

As work progressed and as late as the end of 1826, the king had a change of heart.

With the assistance of his architect, John Nash, he set about transforming the house into a palace. Parliament agreed to a budget of £150,000 (Dh906,269) but the king pressed for £450,000 (Dh2.7 million) as a more realistic figure.

Neo-Classical touches

Nash retained the main block but doubled its size by adding a new suite of rooms on the garden side facing west.

Faced with mellow Bath Stone, the external style reflected the French Neo-Classical influence favoured by George IV.

The remodelled rooms are the State and Semistate Rooms, which remain virtually unchanged since Nash's time.

I watched in awe many of the pieces of furniture and works of art in these rooms were bought or made for Carlton House (George IV's London base when he was Prince of Wales), which was demolished in 1827.

The north and south wings of Buckingham House were demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale with a triumphal arch — Marble Arch — as the centrepiece of an enlarged courtyard, to commemorate the British victories at Trafalgar and Waterloo.

By 1829, the costs had escalated to nearly half a million pounds. Nash's extravagance cost him his job and on the death of George IV in 1830, his younger brother William IV took on Edward Blore to finish the work.

Sovereign role

The king never moved into the palace. Indeed, when the Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire in 1834, the king offered the palace as a new home for Parliament but the offer was declined.

Queen Victoria was the first sovereign to take up residence in July 1837, just three weeks after her accession. In June 1838, she was the first British sovereign to leave from Buckingham Palace for a coronation.

Her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 soon showed up the palace's shortcomings.

A serious problem for the newly married couple was the absence of nurseries and too few bedrooms for visitors.

The only solution was to move the Marble Arch — it now stands at the northeast corner of Hyde Park — and build a fourth wing, thereby creating a quadrangle.

Blore, the architect in charge, created the East Front and, thanks largely to his builder, Thomas Cubitt, the costs were reduced from £150,000 to £106,000 (Dh905,516-Dh639,838).

The cost of the new wing was largely covered by the sale of George IV's Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

Blore added an attic floor to the main block of the palace and decorated it externally with marble friezes originally intended for Nash's Marble Arch. The work was completed in 1847.

By the turn of the century, the soft French stone used in Blore's East Front was showing signs of deterioration, largely due to London's notorious soot and required replacing.

In 1913, the decision was taken to reface the façade. Sir Aston Webb, with a number of large public buildings to his credit, was commissioned to create a new design.

Webb chose Portland Stone, which took 12 months to prepare before building work could begin. When work did start, it took 13 weeks to complete the refacing, a process that included removing the old stonework.

The present forecourt of the palace, where the popular Changing of the Guard takes place, was formed in 1911, as part of the Victoria memorial scheme.

Gates of glory

The gates and railings were also completed in 1911; the North-Centre Gate is now the everyday entrance to the palace while the Central Gate is used for state occasions and the departure of the guard after Changing of the Guard.

The work was completed just before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

I appreciated some of the Royal Collection, including paintings, drawings, watercolours, furniture, ceramics, clocks, silver, sculpture, jewellery, books, manuscripts, prints, maps, arms, armours, fans and textiles.

For over 500 years, kings and queens have amassed collections of art and artefacts. Many of these items still exist today as part of the Royal Collection, the Royal Philatelic Collection, the Royal Archives and the Crown Jewels.

Some of these collections are held by the Sovereign in trust for the nation while others are privately owned by the monarch.

Many of the objects are on public display at the principal royal residences and are shown in a programme of special exhibitions and through loans to institutions around the world.

Timings

The summer opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace is from July 26-September 30. It is open daily from 9.45am–6pm and the last admission is at 3.45pm.

Admission is by timed ticket. Admission prices (includes audio guide): Adult £16.5 (Dh100), over 60/ student £15 (Dh91), under 17 £9.5 (Dh58), under 5 free and family £44 (Dh267) (two adults and three under-17s).

Advance tickets from www.royalcollection.org.uk