Wednesday, July 31, 2013

London Places: Buckingham Palace

London Places: Buckingham Palace

When Jenny visited me in England last summer, we got to spend a week staying with a friend in London. We went out every day & wandered around our favourite London places (all the old haunts, as Anne Shirley would say) & discovered a few new ones too.

Queen Victoria statue & Buckingham Palace in London

And of course, what's a visit to London without a trip (or 2, or 3) to see Buckingham Palace.

Victoria Statue in front of Buckinham Palace

Even the details on the gates & statues are regal:

detail on Buckinham Palace gates


London statue & sky

There are beefeaters:

Beefeaters

And the rather imposing Queen Victoria:

Looking up to Queen Victoria

detail of a London statue

Queen Victoria statue

The Union Jack was flying that day, rather than the Royal Standard, so the Queen was not in residence.

Buckingham Palace on a sunny day

Before 1997, the flagpole would just be empty when it wasn't flying the Royal Standard. But in the days after Diana died, reporters were suddenly asking why the Queen didn't have a flag at half mast over Buckingham.

The reason was simple: she wasn't there, so there was no flag to lower. Even when a king died, the flag had never been lowered.

But after a few days of heated press attention, the Queen broke with tradition & on the day of Diana's funeral the Union Jack was seen at half mast over the palace. There's been a flag flying there ever since.

Close up on Buckingham

sisters at Buckingham Palace

in front of the gold gates

Not all the Queen's guards wear red uniforms & furry hats:

guarding Buckingham

But some of them do:

guarding the Queen

beefeater in front of Buckingham

a beefeater guarding Buckingham Palace

Here's the balcony where we occasionally see the royal family, during weddings & Trooping the Colour:

Buckingham Palace royal balcony

Buckingham Palace gold gates & balcony

The thing I like about Buckingham Palace, the Mall, & the whole area around it is that it always seems kind of peaceful, a slightly calmer oasis right in the middle of bustling London. Not a bad place to live, I think.

London statue at Buckingham Palace

girl & lion statue in London

As city homes go, you could do worse.

Sisters at Buckingham

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