THE SUMMER OPENING OF THE STATE ROOMS AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Every summer in August and September Buckingham Palace's State Rooms open to the public for eight weeks.  As part of their tour of the Palace, visitors also enjoy a special exhibition in one of the State Rooms.  Last year's display, 'A Royal Wedding', recreated the day in 1947 when Princess Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey. For the first time since the wedding day, outfits worn by the principal members of the wedding party were brought together and were shown along with the jewels worn by the bride on that day. The display also included wedding presents from Mahatma Gandhi, Pope Pious XII, President Chiang Kai Shek and President Truman.

Visitors arrive at the Visitor Entrance on Buckingham Palace Road, where they are welcomed by members of the warden team, deposit their bags and collect their complimentary audio tour.  After visiting the nineteen State Rooms and special exhibition, they walk out into the Palace garden, where they can buy a souvenir of their visit in the Buckingham Palace shop.  Before leaving the Palace, visitors can enjoy a walk along the south side of the Palace garden and the famous lake.

To visit Buckingham Palace, visitors can purchase a ticket from the Royal Collection's website, over the telephone or at one of our ticket desks.  The revenue generated from the sale of tickets goes directly to the Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity, and supports the care and conservation of the Royal Collection of art, educational work, loans and traveling exhibitions.  Last summer we welcomed nearly 400,000 visitors from all over the world to Buckingham Palace - that's an average of 6,000 a day.  This would not be possible without our team of dedicated summer staff who are recruited each year to take bookings for tickets, to greet and guide visitors, and to staff our shop.

If you would like to be part of the Summer Opening team for 2008 please return to our main Summer Jobs page and browse the vacancies.