London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [17]
The Changing the Guard, also known as Guard Mounting, remains one of London’s best free shows and culminates in front of the palace. Marching to live bands, the old guard proceeds up the Mall from St. James’s Palace to Buckingham Palace. Shortly afterward, the new guard approaches from Wellington Barracks. Then within the forecourt, the captains of the old and new guards symbolically transfer the keys to the palace.
Palace Tips
If bought directly from the palace ticket office, tickets are valid for a repeat visit over the course of 12 months from the first visit, so you can return to Buckingham Palace for another installment. Admission is by timed ticket with entry every 15 minutes throughout the day. Allow up to two hours.
A Royal Day Out ticket, available only in August and September, gives you the regal triple whammy of the Royal Mews, the Queen’s Gallery, and the State Rooms, and is valid throughout the day. Tickets cost £30.50. Allow four hours.
Get there by 10:30 to grab a spot in the best viewing section for the Changing the Guard (www.changing-the-guard.com), daily at 11:30 from May until the end of July (varies according to troop deployment requirements) and on alternate days for the rest of the year, weather permitting.
Buckingham Palace Rd., St. James | SW1A 1AA | 020/7766–7300 | www.royalcollection.org.uk | £17 | Late July–late Sept., daily 9:45–6 (last admission 3:45); times subject to change; book ahead for disabled access; check Web site before visiting | Victoria, St. James’s Park, Green Park.
SEE THE ROYAL FAMILY
The Queen and the Royal Family attend hundreds of functions a year, and if you want to know what they are doing on any given date, turn to the Court Circular, printed in the major London dailiesthe Times, the Telegraph, and the Scotsman, or check out the Royal Family Web site, | www.royal.gov.uk, for the latest events on the Royal Diary. Trooping the Colour is usually held on the second Saturday in June, to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday. This spectacular parade begins when she leaves Buckingham Palace in her carriage and rides down the Mall to arrive at Horse Guards Parade at 11 exactly. To watch, just line up along the Mall with your binoculars!
Another time you can catch the Queen in all her regalia is when she and the Duke of Edinburgh ride in state to Westminster to open the Houses of Parliament. The famous gilded black, gilt-trimmed Irish State Coach travels from Buckingham Palace, escorted by the brilliantly uniformed Household Cavalry—on a clear day, it’s to be hoped, for this ceremony takes place in late October or early November, depending on the exigencies of Parliament. The Gold State Coach, an icon of fairy-tale glamour, is used for coronations and jubilees only.
But perhaps the most relaxed, least formal time to see the Queen is during Royal Ascot, held at the racetrack near Windsor Castle—a short train ride out of London—usually during the third week of June (Tuesday–Friday). The Queen and members of the Royal Family are driven down the track to the Royal Box in an open carriage, giving spectators a chance to see them. After several races, the Queen invariably walks down to the paddock, greeting race goers as she proceeds.
Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum.
It was from this small warren of underground rooms—beneath the vast government buildings of the Treasury—that Winston Churchill and his team directed troops in World War II. Designed to be bombproof, the whole complex has been preserved almost exactly as it was when the last light was turned off at the end of the war. Every clock shows almost 5 pm, and the furniture, fittings, and paraphernalia of a busy, round-the-clock war office are in situ, down to the colored map pins.
During air raids, the leading government ministers met here, and the Cabinet Room is still arranged as if a meeting were about to convene. In the Map Room, the Allied