There are still a few royal families in the world, then again, the most famous ones is the British Royal Family, with their sovereign the Queen of England herself. She is the eldest world leader of today and her family sure are incredibly well-known.
Queen Elizabeth II, who is the monarch of the United Kingdom, has the right to live in the administrative headquarters of the country, which is the Buckingham Palace. Millions of people from all over the world go all the way to Great Britain in order to get a glimpse of one of the most famous palaces in the world.
It seemed so surprising how much this palace has managed to withstand history. However, nothing lasts forever, which is why it was announced that the Buckingham Palace will actually go under renovation.
The Buckingham Palace with the Queen’s guards
The Buckingham Palace
It is not exactly a castle-like people think, because it is more of a townhouse that was built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham. It was then enlarged by Edward Blore in the 19th century but it wasn’t until 1837 when it became the residence of the British monarch.
It was Queen Victoria who was the very first ruler who lived in the Buckingham Palace. Whenever royals would come and visit the palace, they are no longer required to follow a dress code and may wear whatever they please as long as it is still under the official dress code that was put up by the Queen herself. In the 1800s, the Royals were actually required to wear evening dresses along with their tiaras.
Since the Queen of the United Kingdom resides in this palace, the security is indeed very high. However, it has been tested quite a couple of times. In 1982, a man named Michael Fagan has managed to break into the palace, not just once but twice.
He managed to enter the Queen’s chambers. At that time, no one would actually expect that there is someone who would actually dare to get into the palace, most especially find the Queen’s bedroom.
In the reports at that time, it was said that the intruder actually spoke to the Queen and the Queen herself waited for security to come in. However, based on a report in 2012, the Queen actually ran off and there weren’t any exchange of words that happened.
The $482 Million Worth Royal Renovation
The Buckingham Palace has remained standing tall at the heart of London despite how many centuries passed. Most people do see the Palace as an extravagant home that is incredibly huge, with all the priceless decorations, painting, and other furniture inside it that are often shown on television.
However, what they don’t see is how much it is actually aging inevitably. It turns out that the palace has yet to go through an update in its electrical cable system, plumbing, and the heating wave. This is because it hasn’t been updated since the 50s, which is obviously quite a while now.
The risks of fire and flood ruining the castle are very high, which is why the Queen has decided to make an upgrade. This renovation was actually announced in 2016, wherein the Queen said that it will go under construction in the next 10 years, that would actually cost $482 million.
According to Sir Michael Stevens, who is the Keeper of the Privy Purse of the palace, this upgrade will be considered as an investment since it is mainly to preserve this historical place, not just for the future monarchs, but for the future generation to see. Last year, they have actually started what they refer to as the four-stage plan.
The first stage is to move out all the staff from the east wing of the place to be able to remove the vulcanized Indian rubber as the cabling system since it could cause a fire. The second is to replace everything such as boilers, generators and even all the electrical panels and the water tanks.
Thirdly, is to make sure that the palace is energy efficient, and finally, is to basically improve everything that would finish up in 2027. The British Royal Family hopes that after the renovation, it would attract more tourists and so they are doing their best to ensure its future.