Ninety minutes, one very large ballroom, and a surprisingly good audio guide changed my mind about the whole royal tourist circuit

I have lived in London my entire adult life and had, until last week, never once been inside Buckingham Palace, a fact I mention not with any particular pride but as an honest admission of the specific kind of local snobbery that assumes anything this obviously touristy cannot possibly be worth the ticket price.

The Basic Details, For Anyone Considering It

The State Rooms are open to the public from 9 July through 27 September this year, the ten week window each summer when the King is away and nineteen working state rooms briefly become a self guided museum. Standard adult tickets run £33 booked in advance, with reduced pricing for younger visitors, and the whole thing includes a genuinely well produced multimedia guide available in nine languages, plus access to the gardens on your way out.

What Actually Impressed Me

The Ballroom is the one that got me, thirty six and a half metres long, built to host state banquets and, apparently, the occasional Mendelssohn concert in its history, and considerably larger in person than any photograph quite prepares you for. The Grand Staircase is exactly as dramatic as every royal wedding photograph has led you to expect, and the Throne Room manages to feel simultaneously absurd and genuinely moving, which is a strange combination I was not expecting to experience over what is, at the end of the day, a piece of furniture.

The One Disappointment

The White Drawing Room, famous for its secret mirrored door the late Queen apparently used to make a discreet exit during long garden parties, is closed to visitors this particular summer as part of ongoing reservicing works at the palace, a genuinely fair reason for the closure but a disappointment nonetheless if, like me, you had specifically read about the secret door in advance and were rather looking forward to it.

Who Else Was There

The crowd, as you would expect, skewed heavily international, and I overheard at least four different languages within my first twenty minutes inside, a reminder that this remains one of the more reliably in demand tickets in the entire city regardless of what any local might privately think about the monarchy itself. Londonist has covered the visitor experience in more detail if you want the full room by room breakdown before booking.

A Small Confession About My Own Snobbery

I went in expecting to write something faintly withering about the whole enterprise, ninety minutes, an audio guide, gift shop at the end, and came out instead genuinely moved by the sheer scale and craft of the place, regardless of what one thinks about the institution it represents. That is an uncomfortable thing to admit as someone who has spent a fair amount of energy over the years being sniffy about tourist London specifically because it is popular with tourists.

Practical Advice, Briefly

Book well ahead, arrive within your fifteen minute timed window or risk not getting in at all, and leave your large bag at home since there is only limited cloakroom space. Photography inside the State Rooms is not permitted, which, if I am honest, made me pay considerably more attention to the actual rooms than I otherwise might have.

Where This Leaves Me

I am, against all my own prior instincts, recommending it, tourist trap reputation and all. More of my ongoing, occasionally reluctant tourist conversions can be found at my author page on The London Prat.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com