IN the early 1700s, the Duke of Marlborough, on entering his palatial 187-room Blenheim Palace, used to mutter: “Home is home, be it ever so humble!” Today, BP is overshadowed by another BP — Buckingham Palace — which has 775 rooms. Queen Victoria in 1837 made Buckingham Palace her home. As her family expanded, so did the palace. An additional wing — now the façade one sees with the famous balcony — was constructed where Marble Arch once stood.

During her long reign, Queen Victoria hos­­ted a number of royals there. Many — esp­­ecially the Russian Romanovs — compared it unfavourably with their own vast palaces. She preferred, however, the privacy of Balmoral in Scotland and the homely intimacy of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

Moving into and out of Buckingham Palace never came easily to some royalty. In 1901, when her husband became King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra refused to quit Marlborough House where she had lived as Princess of Wales for almost 40 years. And in 1910, on the death of her husband, she refused to vacate Buckingham Palace until eased out by her daughter-in-law the new Queen Mary.

During World War II, the palace suffered damage when a German bomb destroyed the royal chapel. That has now been........

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