Prince Charles of Britain has announced that if he becomes the King, he will open more Royal Palaces to the public. The 72-year-old Prince of Wales has hinted that he does not want to use Windsor Castle as often as Queen Elizabeth II after becoming the King. He wants to spend time at Buckingham Palace, Highgrove House – the family residence of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in Gloucestershire, Sandringham House in Norfolk and his Scottish residence in Balmoral.

Currently, the Queen uses Buckingham Palace as her office, visits Windsor at weekends, spends the summer in Balmoral, and enjoys Christmas in Sandringham. However, Prince Charles, her son, wants to keep the Buckingham Palace and its gardens open to the public throughout the year. He also wants people to enter the room, through which members of the Royal Family arrive at Buckingham’s balcony by pushing the glass door, to greet people. Then, visitors shall get an opportunity to see the furnace that had been brought by Queen Victoria from Brighton. It has been kept in the Chinese dining room. Visitors can also see the Belgian suite for accommodating foreign heads of state. Buckingham Palace has a total of 775 rooms, and before the outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic, nearly 500,000 visitors used to visit the palace every year. Currently, tourists can only enter the Palace’s State Rooms and gardens from July to October, when the Queen stays in Scotland. An average of 550,000 visitors come to the Royal Residence every year.

A Royal source has said: “The Prince wants to bring people in to connect with the institution. He recognises it needs to keep evolving, and in the modern era people want to be able to access their Palaces. He embraces that and sees them as Public Places more than Private Spaces.” According to the source, Queen Elizabeth II is reportedly informed of Charles’ welcoming plans. He has also reportedly consulted Prince William, Kate Middleton and other members of the Royal Family about his plan. When Prince Charles becomes the King, he will apparently not be spending extensive time at Windsor Castle. Meanwhile, visitors will reportedly be able to go inside Buckingham Palace and view the gardens while the King will be staying there. The manse is currently undergoing a GBP 369 million renovation that would be completed in 2027.

As Prince Charles has no plan to live at the main Palace in Balmoral, visitors shall also get more opportunity to visit there. Queen Victoria’s famous armchair, kept in the drawing room of Balmoral Palace, shall be one of the main attractions for tourists, on which no one is allowed to sit. In an incident during the shooting of The Crown TV series, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (October 13, 1925 – April 8, 2013) inadvertently sat on the armchair, and Princess Margaret (August 21, 1930 – February 9, 2002) – the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II – scolded the Iron Lady for the same!

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das