Buckingham Palace, London

NAME OF LOCATION: Buckingham Palace, perhaps the most famous building in the world, one of the London homes of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her consort, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.

BACKGROUND: Buckingham Palace State Rooms have been open since the early 1990s. My parents went to see them during the Golden Jubilee year celebrations and I had tried to get on Gee Vee Travel’s next trip that year, but it was fully booked. ...
...gallery and gift shop on Buckingham Palace Road itself almost opposite the Rubens Hotel, which Robert and I have stayed in overlooking the Royal Mews and stable blocks.

TRANSPORT: We went by coach from Chesterfield to London, which dropped us off at Buckingham Palace, on Buckingham Palace Road, for a guided tour then picked us up and dropped us off again at the Eye.

Tube: Nearest underground stations: Victoria or Green ... more

NAME OF LOCATION: Buckingham Palace, perhaps the most famous building in the world, one of the London homes of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her consort, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.

BACKGROUND: Buckingham Palace State Rooms have been open since the early 1990s. My parents went to see them during the Golden Jubilee year celebrations and I had tried to get on Gee Vee Travel’s next trip that year, but it was fully booked. However, I fully intended to book a trip as soon as I saw it being offered again. Which is why, I booked this in January! The trips were available on several dates but we chose to go on the last Saturday available: 25 September as it was just a few weeks after Robert’s 30th birthday!

ATTRACTIONS:
State Rooms: Open Daily from Open 31 July - 26 September 2004, when the Queen is at one of her other homes (Balmoral). A timed-ticket system is operated, with admission every 15 minutes. 9.30am - last admission 4.15pm.

Changing of the Guard: The Guard Change takes place daily from April until the end of June at 11:30am. For the rest of the year, weather permitting; it is on alternate days at the same time.

The Queens Gallery: This is an art gallery and gift shop on Buckingham Palace Road itself almost opposite the Rubens Hotel, which Robert and I have stayed in overlooking the Royal Mews and stable blocks.

TRANSPORT: We went by coach from Chesterfield to London, which dropped us off at Buckingham Palace, on Buckingham Palace Road, for a guided tour then picked us up and dropped us off again at the Eye.

Tube: Nearest underground stations: Victoria or Green Park
Train: Nearest train station: Victoria

PRICE: We paid £40 in total (each). However, this included entrance fees for Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and transport to and from Chesterfield.

2004 prices from the website www.aboutbritain.com/Buckinghampalace.htm :
Adult £12.95; Over 60/Student (with valid ID) £11.00; Under 17 £6.50; Under 5 Free, Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s) £32.50. Tickets may be purchased from the Ticket Office at Canada Gate in Green Park, open 09:00-16:00. If buying a ticket in advance : book online or telephone (+44) (0) 20 7766 7300. A booking fee of £1.00 per ticket applies. All major credit cards accepted.

OUR TRIP:
The coach group were booked in for a 1pm tour but due to their not being much traffic we arrived at 12noon. Our driver did try to get our tour altered to an earlier one but because it was pre-booked was unable to do so. This meant that we had an hour to ourselves in London.

As Calvin, Robert’s mate had not been to London before we decided to walk round to the front of the Palace so that he got a good look at the balcony, guard huts, and the Victoria memorial. We also pointed out to him The Mall and the Arch (believed to be Wellington Arch) at the far end. As the boys had not had their lunch on the coach, we then entered St James’ Park and had a quick wander round before settling on a bench for them to eat their lunch.

We then returned back to the drop off point via the grand gates of St James’ Park and walked over the Mall, pointing out the Serpentine, and where the Cabinet War Rooms were. He then went into the Queens Gallery looking for a toilet

A few minutes later, we then rejoined the rest of our party to start the tour. The coach driver took us to the gate and we were then made to wait under some canopies until our turn came. We went in a few minutes later than our scheduled time, but the reason for this soon became clear.

SECURITY:
A security guard told us to remove all metal objects from our pockets and handbags and remove our coats before we got to the metal detector. I removed my coat and placed my handbag and coat onto the conveyor belt for it to be scanned by the lady. Another lady gave me a bowl to put my metal objects into before I walked through the detector – she passed this round to me after checking the bowls’ contents.

Unfortunately, I forgot to remove my metal medic alert necklace and of course set the detector off. I am stupid aren’t I? I was then directed to a male guard who had to scan me with a hand held device – I realised what I had done and explained to him. He scanned me, and only my necklace beeped, so he accepted that I was safe to continue.

We had been advised that mobiles and cameras were not allowed inside the palace so we had left them on the coach. However, I noticed that if you did try to take them inside they were taken off you and at the end you were reunited with your belongings on the steps where Princess Diana showed off her engagement ring.

AUDIO TAPE:
We then walked through into a shop and were directed to the audio issuers. We were all issued with an audiotape machine and earphones. The issuers gave us quick instructions and placed the machine over our heads. We could at this point have bought a guidebook – I didn’t and regretted it later.

Robert and I are used to visiting places of interest that use audio tapes to guide you round. However, Robert’s tape was set to Japanese or Chinese and he had to ask a guide how to change it. She was very helpful and changed it very quickly for him. He was not the only one who received a guide in the wrong language – this spoiled the image of a well-organised tour slightly.

The audiotape gives instructions as you go through the house and the first part of the tape gives you instructions on how to change the volume, pause it, stop it, etc.

The guided tape explained places and rooms as you went through them and literally guided you through the Palace with instructions such as “turn left into the ballroom” and would then advise you to press the green button to continue when you are in position.

In the ballroom, you were allowed to sit and watch a video of events that have happened in that room. You also got to see the investiture sword and the costumes that they can wear when they have been awarded the Order of the Garter, etc. Very impressive.

There were several places where you could listen to extra material. I tried to listen to them all. Robert raced on – as usual. Calvin kept a similar pace to myself for most of the tour.

However, I eventually noticed that Calvin was out of sight and I didn’t recognise anyone from my tour either in front of me or behind. As we were on a strict timetable for the London Eye (see A Werewolf in London Part 1), I stopped listening to the extra bits and continued on the tour as normal. I caught up with Robert and Calvin in the gardens.

The garden itself is cordoned off so that you cannot go onto the grass – but you can go on the grass if you attend a Garden Party – I know, I received my Gold Duke of Edinburgh award from Nick Gillingham, Olympic swimmer, on that very grass! I also had the opportunity to speak to HRH Duke of Edinburgh on that same extremely hot afternoon. He was very pleasant, not at all like he is portrayed in the media, if you really want to know.

After visiting the toilet block, which was very clean and had plenty of toilets for the ladies at least, I visited the shop and was astounded by the prices! However, I did purchase a guidebook and a Palace in the Park DVD, which was to celebrate the Golden Jubilee. The attendant cashier asked me where I was going to watch it, which at the time sounded like a stupid question. I replied “at home”, but it had clicked that she meant where as in country, so I added “in England”. She then explained that they had the DVDs in different formats for the various countries. This intrigued the American stood at the side of me, who seemed interested that he might be able to buy a copy himself. The shop accepted Visa and American Express credit cards, so I believe that they probably accepted other credit or debit cards.

GOOD POINTS
· Going in almost on time
· A guide in nearly every room, so that you could ask more information if you needed/wanted to.
· Good descriptions in the audio tour of both the items you could see and also which way to go.

BAD POINTS
· Prices in the shop
· Only toilets were in the garden and none in the waiting area
· Lake area was covered in algae
· Wrong language on audio tape

AFTERWARDS
Robert had lost sight of Calvin who he believed had gone to the toilet but we had waited ages and he hadn’t surfaced, so he doubled back to the steps area. However, a guide asked him why he was going back – apparently there is only one way out through the gardens and they dislike anyone doubling back. He explained that we had lost a member of our party and was allowed to go back to look for Calvin. I noticed that the guide stopped a few others who were going back from the toilet area to the steps. Calvin had gone back to the steps area, but he had evidently been in the shop before returning to that area. When we were all reunited, we all went in the shop – which is when I bought the items described above.

We went through the gardens to get out and the lake looked terrible, it was covered in green algae and looked as if it had never been cleaned.

When we got back on the coach, we discovered that we were not the last ones – which was my main worry – and we ended up having to wait a least a quarter of an hour. We had got back to the coach about 3pm so we had been in the Palace about 1hour and a half but we could have been in a lot longer. Leave plenty of time for this experience. It is not to be missed.

MORE INFORMATION FROM:
www.royal.gov.uk or bookinginfo@royalcollections.org.uk or groupbookings@royalcollection.org.uk or www.aboutbritain.com/Buckinghampalace.htm. Please note that the first 3 websites given are in the Buckingham Palace guide book and I have not checked them out personally. However, the last one (above), I have checked out and got the current prices for the Palace from it.

DISABLED ACCESS: There are no lifts that I was aware of and although there were disabled people on my coach trip none were in a wheelchair. It is not suitable for people who are unable to climb stairs. To get into the first room, you have to climb a staircase. If you can climb stairs but are still disabled, there was a banister and a rope banister to assist you. I suggest that you check the websites out for more details.

Apologies for the length of this op, but I think it deserved a proper full-length review explaining all the features that I could.

 

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