Buckingham Palace and it's rooms full of extraordinary treasures isn't a home in any kind of traditional sense, but neither is it a museum. The building is very much a working palace, in constant use by HM The Queen and the Royal Family.
The reality, however, of inhabiting a building of this kind is a little less glamorous than it may appear; its electrical cabling, plumbing, and heating have not been updated since the 1950s and there’s a real risk of fires and flood that could severely damage the palace (see: Windsor, 1992). It’s also horrendously energy inefficient, hence the 10-year, £369 million plan to renovate it announced in 2016.
The palace's official Instagram account is keeping followers abreast of developments, recently sharing a video detailing the preservation of a near 200-year-old wallpaper hanging in the Yellow Drawing Room. The fragile wallpaper was first bought by King George IV, and hung in the Brighton Pavilion. Following the First World War, Queen Mary found it in storage and reinstalled it in the Yellow Drawing Room, which she used for entertaining guests.
The wallpaper has been painstakingly removed as works to install a lift in the East Wing, and make it more accessible, will cause vibrations that may further damage the wallpaper.
In 2017, the four-stage plan started. The first stage is called “advanced works,” and includes moving staff out of the East Wing (where this wallpaper has been stripped) and removing vulcanised Indian rubber from the palace. This cabling “is deemed to present the greatest fire risk and therefore early removal is essential.”
Then, there’s the operational nitty-gritty: replacing things like boilers, generators, electrical panels, and water tanks. Once that’s all done, they will start making sure the palace is energy efficient. Last will be the “operational improvements phase,” which is described as “a range of interventions which will improve operational efficiency.” The full repairs should wrap up in 2027.
The goal isn’t to preserve the palace just for the Queen and her family but for the public as well. The hope is that this renovation will attract even more visitors, which will in turn ensure its future.
MAY WE SUGGEST: The interiors of Buckingham Palace
