Ever dreamed about living in a palace? Like Buckingham Palace, for example? Well it’s
a nice place, so why not? This ostentatious home is pretty old and huge, but the location
is close to schools and shopping! And besides that, it’s got a lot of interesting secrets.
When you learn about them you'll get a glimpse of what it's like to live there.
So, counting down from:
#20. A Whopping number of rooms (“Whopping” as it’s used here means: “boatload”,
“overabundance”, and of course “glut”) We all know that Buckingham Palace is huge,
but just to help you comprehend its size, get ready for this information – it has
775 rooms! This number includes over 200 bedrooms. Honestly, I can't even imagine so many rooms
in one building. At least now I understand why they need so much cleaning staff. But
I can't help but wonder how everyone who lives there doesn't get lost. Is there some sort
of a map that helps them navigate around? Ooh, that's a question.
19. No waiting in line Well, since Buckingham Palace has so many
rooms, obviously there should be a lot of bathrooms, right? Yes, it has 78 bathrooms!
Way too many toilets to clean! On the bright side, and we are, if there's any kind of Royal
function, none of the guests have to wait in line no matter how large the event is.
18. ATM in the basement Sometimes you need to get cash fast, so you
go to the bank or start looking for an ATM. But if you're a member of the Royal family,
you can forget about all that hassle. All you have to do is go to the basement of Buckingham
Palace because there's an ATM right there! How convenient!
17. Moving chandeliers In the time before electricity, it was a real
challenge for the staff of Buckingham Palace to clean all the huge chandeliers. They had
to teeter on ladders trying to reach them. But now everything is much easier; thanks
to technology, chandeliers can be lowered to a manageable level simply by pressing a
button on the remote control.
16. A fully equipped doctor's office In case of any medical emergency, the members
of the Royal family usually go to a hospital where they're treated by the best doctors
in the country. But if there's a situation that prevents them from doing so, they don't
have to worry since they can receive treatment without leaving the palace. The doctor's office
located there is even equipped for surgical procedures.
15. The largest private garden in London Imagine 30 football fields and you'll get
the idea about the size of the Palace garden that stretches for 39 acres. So in this football
analogy, that makes the Palace into the luxury boxes over looking the 30 football fields.
Oh never mind. The garden is divided into 3 main parts: Harrisons, which includes the
massive lawn; a rose garden, where you can find a famous 15-feet Waterloo Vase (or vahse)
and see 25 varieties of England's national flower; and the Yard, which is a less manicured
area.
14. Secret river The River Tyburn flows under the south wing
of the palace, revealing the fact that the building was set up on swampland. Of course,
it doesn't mean that part of the palace is floating on water, but A Ri ver Runs Through
It, or at least underneath it, adding to the uniqueness of the Royal residence.
13. Post office You probably already have the idea that Buckingham
Palace isn't simply a building, but more like a mini-town, since the royalty can get pretty
much any service there. And, yes, that includes the mail. Since the Queen is the queen, using
a regular post office isn't an option for her. That's why her palace has its own post
office. Pretty cool! Speaking of mailing…
12. Zip code Usually, zip codes are assigned to specific
neighborhoods, but when it comes to Buckingham palace, everything seems to be an exception.
This truly massive place has its own zip code! If you ever feel like writing a letter to
the Queen, or maybe sending her some cute gift, here it is: SW1A 1AA. Just don’t address
it to “Liz”.
11. Spooky neighbor It seems like any building that's really old
has to have a ghost or two. The same goes for the Palace. The site where the royal residence
is located now was once occupied by a monastery. And some believe that’s the reason why the
place is haunted by the ghost of a monk who used to live in that monastery. Do you think
it might be true? Sound off in the comments!
10. Labyrinthe of secret tunnels Some used to say that there's a secret tunnel
that connects Buckingham Palace and London Tube. It's just a rumor, but the royal residence
does have tunnels. There's a whole underground system of passageways that allows getting
from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House, as well as the House of Parliament. This system
serves for security purposes, obviously. But I wonder if the Queen ever used it just because
she didn't feel like using a car to get to those places? Maybe she drives herself around
in a golf cart down there.
9. It wasn't originally built for kings and queens
This one might surprise you, but before the palace turned into the building we know it
as today, it was just a three-story block house owned by John Sheffield, the Duke of
Buckingham. In 1761, King George III decided to buy it for £21,000 (which is now around
$5 million dollars, which is still a steal), and started the process of transforming the
estate into a magnificent sanctuary for his wife, Queen Charlotte. However, the first
monarch who named it as their official residence was Queen Victoria. She did it after her coronation
in 1837.
8. Unexpected visitor During the long history of Buckingham Palace,
there were a few cases of ordinary people sneaking inside. In 1838, a 14-year-old Edward
Jones made his first successful attempt to get in there. He was caught and it turned
out that the boy stole some items from Queen Victoria’s wardrobe. A few years later he
did it again two more times! During the last time, he was found hiding under a sofa and
got arrested.
7. Is anybody home? If you ever visit London and find yourself
near the palace, you can find out in no time if the Queen is at home. When she's there,
the Royal Standard flag is flown over her residence. And when Her Majesty is out – the
Union Flag. Every time the Queen arrives or departs, a special person called a flag sergeant
changes the flags.
6. Tik-tok's everywhere As you can guess, The Queen and all other
members of the Royal family have a pretty packed-up schedule. That's why it's so important
for them to know the right time in order not to be late. This most likely explains the
number of clocks in Buckingham Palace – over 350. And there's even a special person to
look after them – a clockmaster, whose duty is to wind them all up every week. And boy,
he better not be late!
5. The number of visitors Obviously, when you're the Queen, you just
have to host a lot of events and functions. More than 50,000 guests visit Buckingham Palace
every year. Just one typical garden party hosts around 8,000 guests. To feed them all,
the staff has to serve 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and 20,000 slices of cake.
Wait, let’s pencil that out. (hmm…carry the 3…) So each guest receives 3 &1/2 cups
of tea, and 2 &1/2 sandwiches and piece of cake. Well, you won’t go away hungry!
4. Tours for ordinary people If you doubt the Queen will invite you to
one of her parties any time soon, you can always take a tour of Buckingham Palace. Usually,
visitors are allowed only for a couple months a year, from the end of July to September,
because this is the time when the Queen is away. How convenient. However, there's another
way for you to see what this splendid building hides – you can take a 360-degree tour online
and check out the throne room, picture gallery, and ballrooms without leaving your home. I’m
thinking the 78 bathrooms aren’t on the tour.
3. Oldest helicopter pad in London Well, kind of. In 1953, a helicopter landed
in the palace garden for the first time, and since then, that spot served as a helicopter
landing area without any special construction for many years. But in 2000, the Royal family
finally decided to build an official helipad because they'd had enough of the lawn being
destroyed by helicopter. The helipad was created from a layer of matting underneath grass,
because a concrete one was considered not pleasing to the eye.
2. Not a crumb goes waste Sitting at work and can't wait to get home
and eat those pizza leftovers from yesterday? Well, the Royal family does pretty much the
same. Of course, they employ the best chefs who cook delicious meals for them and the
guests every day. But if there were leftovers from a meal, they'd be stored away in a fridge
and reused in a meal the following day.
1. Birth announcement As you probably know, England is known for
its love of traditions. And even though we're living in the digital era when the news from
all over the world fits on your smartphone, the Royal family still follows a really old
custom. When there's a Royal birth, they place an official announcement outside the main
entrance of the Palace to let everybody know if it's a boy or a girl and the weight of
the newborn as well.
Which of those secrets impressed you the most? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned
something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a friend.
But – hey! – don’t go tour the 78 bathrooms just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for
you to check out. All you have to do is pick the left or right video, click on it, and
voila ! Stay on the Bright Side of life!