Buckingham Palace: What You Can Actually See and When

Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. You can visit approximately 19 of them during the summer season, which is both fewer and more than people expect. Fewer because the vast majority of the palace remains working government and royal residential space. More because the 19 rooms that open to visitors are the formal State Rooms where two centuries of state business has been conducted, decorated at a level that makes most European royal palaces look understated.

The palace has been the principal London residence of the British monarch since 1837. Visiting it properly requires understanding its specific seasonal and year-round access patterns.

State Rooms

The State Rooms open for public tours from approximately late July through late September, when the royal family is typically at Balmoral. This is the primary annual opportunity to see the interior. Adult tickets cost around £30-35 and require advance booking at the Royal Collection Trust website (rct.uk).

The rooms include the Throne Room (two thrones, gold-and-crimson canopy, the room where formal investitures and receptions happen), the White Drawing Room, the State Dining Room, and the Picture Gallery – a long gallery with significant works from the Royal Collection including paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyck. The Picture Gallery alone justifies the ticket for anyone with an interest in 17th-century painting. Allow 2-3 hours.

The Palace garden, visible through the State Rooms, covers 39 acres and is normally inaccessible; guided garden tours run on select dates in summer and are worth booking if you’re visiting during that window.

Year-Round Access

The Queen’s Gallery, on the palace’s south side, is open year-round and shows rotating temporary exhibitions from the Royal Collection (approximately 30,000 drawings and watercolours, 500,000 prints, 7,000 paintings). Admission around £17 for adults; quality varies by exhibition, but the collection depth means good material is always available.

Royal Mews: also open year-round on most days. The working horses and carriages used for state occasions. The Gold State Coach (1762, 4 tonnes, 8 horses, used for coronations) is here, as is the Australian State Coach (1988) and the various other ceremonial vehicles. Admission around £15.

Changing of the Guard

The ceremony takes place at the palace forecourt. April through July: daily at 11am. August onwards: alternate days. The ceremony runs about 45 minutes. Free to watch from outside the gates or from St James’s Park, which gives an elevated view from the Mall’s western end.

Arrive 30-45 minutes early for good viewing positions. This is genuinely worth doing once – the precision of the drill, the bearskins, the band, and the setting combine into something specifically British that can’t be explained fully but is easy to observe.

Getting there: Green Park or Hyde Park Corner tube stations are both a 10-minute walk.