by The image of the Royal family going from the balcony of Buckingham Palace to the crowds below is embedded in the national consciousness.
Now, for the first time, the public will have the opportunity to see the view from the perspective of the royals when the East Wing of the palace is opened to visitors.
Guided tours will be given in the Center Room, which leads to the balcony.
Although there is no access to the balcony itself, visitors will be able to peek through the net curtains to experience the view that the King and Queen enjoy as they wave to the crowds on the Mall.
A palace insider said: “Visitors won’t be able to step out onto the balcony but they will certainly experience the impact and atmosphere of that room, as well as the view from the window.”
The decision to open the East Wing reflects the King’s desire to make royal residences more accessible to the public. It follows the announcement that Balmoral is also to be opened for the first time, giving visitors the chance to glimpse some of the rooms where Elizabeth II spent her last days.
Tickets, which cost between £100 and £150, sold out in less than 24 hours, with Ballymore’s website briefly down due to demand.
The East Wing of Buckingham Palace, which includes the front facade, was not opened to the public.
It was built between 1847 and 1849 after Queen Victoria commissioned architect Edward Blore to draw up plans for alterations to accommodate her growing family.
The building, which previously included an open, horseshoe-shaped courtyard, was funded by the sale of the Royal Pavilion, George IV’s seaside retreat in Brighton, in 1850.
Many ceramics and fine furniture from the Pavilion, which reflected George IV’s love of Asian art and design, were transferred to the new wing and Chinese decoration inspired its main rooms.
First occupied by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children, it is still used by the Royal family for meetings and official events.
Small groups of visitors, led by expert guides, will be able to walk through the rooms on the Principal’s Floor, with highlights from the Royal Collection provided.
Main corridor
The tour will take several rooms along the red carpeted Main Corridor, which runs the length of the wing.
On the corridor itself there are almost 30 paintings by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
The paintings at the north end of the corridor are mainly portraits of Queen Victoria and her family, as well as scenes depicting important events in her life.
Among them is a painting entitled God Save the Queen, by John Charlton, which shows Queen Victoria arriving at St Paul’s Cathedral for her Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving Service on 22 June 1897.
Yellow Drawing Room
At the southern end of the corridor is the Yellow Drawing Room, where Elizabeth II recorded her Christmas address to the nation in 2004.
The room is decorated with recently restored Chinese wallpaper from the 18th century.
Visitors will see two hexagonal, nine-tiered Chinese porcelain pagodas and the Kylin Clock, which includes two turquoise Chinese lions.
Center Room
Halfway down the corridor, as the name suggests, is the Center Room, which leads out onto the balcony.
The King chose this room to record his Christmas message last December.
The room features a newly restored glass chandelier, shaped to resemble a lotus flower, as well as two 18th century Chinese imperial silk wall hangings, presented to Queen Victoria by Guangxu, the emperor of China, to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
There are also many Chinese porcelain vases, originally supplied to George IV in 1807.
Visitors will also see the entrance to the Privy Purse, the Privy Purse staircase and a caged lift which dates back to the early 1900s and carries the Edward VII cypher.
Two years of construction work
The wing will open to the public following an extensive refurbishment program which began in 2018.
The works are part of Buckingham Palace’s 10-year conservation program to upgrade the historic building’s infrastructure, improve access and preserve it for future generations.
The current phase, which began last summer, involves the removal of approximately 70,000 items from the North Wing, which was expected to take 18 months, before two years of construction work.
Talks about guided tours of the East Wing began about two years ago, and sources revealed it felt like a “good opportunity” to expand access because the newly renovated rooms are “so beautiful”.
A limited number of East Wing Highlights Tours will run daily throughout July and August, starting on 15 July.
The tours must be booked in addition to the standard admission ticket to the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, and the full ticket costs £75.
Tickets go on sale on 9 April, with priority access to Royal Collection Trust email subscribers before remaining tickets go on general sale the following day.
Artwork and decorative arts
The Palace will be open seven days a week throughout July and August for the first time since 2019, returning for five days a week in September.
The Royal Collection Trust looks after the artwork and decorative arts collected by monarchs and manages the public openings of the King’s official residences.
As a charity, it does not receive public money, which finances its work through entrance fees to the royal residences and other commercial activities.
So the lockdowns introduced during the coronavirus pandemic have hit its finances hard, reporting a £15 million deficit in the 2021-22 financial year.
However, last summer it emerged that the trust had returned to profit for the first time since the pandemic – generating £8 million of income during the previous financial year.
