Buckingham Palace closes to visitors today in preparation for Her Majesty The Queen’s return to London next week. The Queen, who has spent the last two months at Balmoral Castle, will return to Buckingham Palace after her engagements on 1st October in Aberdeen.
For the last two months, Buckingham Palace has been open to the general public to visit and look through the 19 state rooms the Palace has, while The Queen and the Royal Family were away on holiday.
Guests are also able to walk through the gardens of the Palace at the end of their tour of the state rooms.
The Palace usually attracts in excess of half a million visitors each year when it’s opened for the two months in the summer.
Once The Queen returns to London in the coming days, the Palace will return to its usual function of hosting investitures, meetings, audiences and other events that The Queen and members of the Royal Family participate in during the working year.
As well as the State Rooms, visitors are able to walk through the gardens at the Palace at the end of their tour.
In a few weeks’ time, the Palace gardens will play host to a football match hosted by Prince William as part of events organised partly by the Prince as President of the Football Association.
Once Her Majesty returns from her Balmoral holiday, she’ll spend the working week at Buckingham Palace and travel to Windsor Castle on Friday afternoon for the weekend.
The Duke of Edinburgh is expected to join The Queen a few days after she returns to London. They will both be together by 9th October when The Queen will start off The Queen’s Baton Relay from the forecourt of Buckingham Palace for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Photo credits: Royal Central
