Hundreds of distinguished historic figures have visited Buckingham Palace since it became the Sovereign's London residence. They have included a seven-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (when it was still Buckingham House); Felix Mendelssohn; Johann Strauss the Younger; Charles Dickens; Alfred Lord Tennyson; American Presidents including Woodrow Wilson and JF Kennedy; Mahatma Gandhi (who wore a loin cloth and sandals to tea with King George V); first man on the moon Neil Armstrong; actor Laurence Olivier; and Nelson Mandela.
Buckingham Palace is not only The Queen's London home: The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of York, The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Princess Royal and Princess Alexandra also have private offices and apartments located within the Palace.
More than 50,000 people visit the Palace each year as The Queen's guests at banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and garden parties. The Buckingham Palace kitchen is able to serve a sit-down meal to as many as 600 people at a time. Since 1993, the State Rooms of the Palace have also been open to members of the public to visit during August and September, while The Queen is not in residence.
The Queen's regular audiences with the British Prime Minister traditionally take place at Buckingham Palace in The Queen's Audience Room. During the war, King George VI's audiences with Winston Churchill were less formal - the two helped themselves to food from a buffet before sitting down to talk in privacy
No comments:
Post a Comment