Queen Elizabeth Doesn’t Visit These Rooms In Buckingham Palace For This Reason

Queen Elizabeth lives in Buckingham Palace as it has been the official residence of the sovereigns of the United Kingdom since 1837. Today it also serves as the administrative headquarters of Her Majesty and the venue for various events and receptions hosted by the Queen.

According to House Beautiful, Buckingham Palace has a total of 775 rooms, and these include 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 92 offices, 188 staff bedrooms, 78 bathrooms and 326 miscellaneous rooms, such as the throne room and ballroom. The whole building measures 108 meters long, has a depth of 120 meters and is 24 meters high.

Although the Palace is Queen Elizabeth’s official home, she only uses a small section of this enormous building. Since this part is where her private apartments are located, this is the only space that she usually stays in, and she never wanders off to visit the other rooms in the stately home.

The big extravagant rooms are maintained for state occasions, royal events and public tours. Aside from these functions, these areas are not used, so Queen Elizabeth never really visits these spaces. The other parts of the Palace that she never goes to include the pantries, laundry rooms, maintenance rooms, kitchens and the servants’ quarters.

There are reasons why the monarch don’t visit these places. As per Rob Cover, an associate professor at the University of Western Australia, Her Majesty and the rest of the royal family do not enter these rooms because they respect their employees and their exclusive place of work inside the Palace.

Moreover, they don’t want to touch or change things in a room, which could happen when they drop by, because it would only confuse and disrupt the works of their household staff. Queen Elizabeth doesn't want to interfere as she trusts that their staff will get things done even without her supervision.

Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace is open to the public during the summer. Tourists can also visit in December, January and Easter, but these months have a limited number of tours. Some of the rooms that the guests can view with their tour tickets are the State Rooms, the Queen's Gallery and the Royal Mews.