Description

TQ 2879 NE and 2979 NW
89/15; 90/22

CITY OF WESTMINSTER
THE MALL, SW1
Buckingham Palace

5.2.70

GV
I
Royal Palace. 1825 design, begun 1826 by John Nash, rebuilding Buckingham House of 1705 as a palace for George IV, completed 1837 with alterations by Edward Blore; The east range added 1847-50 by Blore; the Ballroom block of 1853-54, with Ambassadors' Court, by Sir James Pennethorne; the east front refaced 1913 by Sir Aston Webb for George V.

Marble faced east front, the rest Bath stone except for Blore's west quadrangle front in Caen stone; slate and leaded roofs. Quadrangle plan. Monumental Graeco-Roman, composed with picturesque intent by Nash; Webb's east front a stiff Dixhuitieme exercise constrained by Blore's existing range but with elegant detailing: East front: three storeys with ground and attic floor mezzanines. Fenestration in rhythm 3:7:3:7:3 with centrepiece and terminal pavilion. Channelled ground floor with semicircular arched central gateway flanked by square headed doorways, all with fine ornamental iron gates of 1847; end pavilions and main range with square headed and semicircular arched gateways respectively; architraved sashes with open pediments on first floor and cornices on second floor; fluted Corinthian pilasters rise through first and second floors supporting main entablature with blocking course and balustraded parapet; centrepiece and terminal pavilions with Corinthian columns in antis and plain outer pilasters, in pairs on centrepiece, crowned by blind attics with pediments; continuous balustraded balcony to first floor.

West front: of Blore's east range; advanced centrepiece with tetrastyle giant fluted Corinthian column portico above archway; sculpture in pediment. North and South quadrangle ranges: by Nash and given uniform three storey height, with attic, by him in 1828; slightly advanced five-window wide pilastered centrepieces; ground floor Greek Doric colonnades filled in by Blore; to the south Ambassadors' Court with temple portico-porch and flanking ranges with Corinthian colonnade in antis, adjoining Pennethorne's 1853-1854 Ballroom block which continues giant columned corner pavilion theme of Nash's garden front.

East front of Nash's West range: originally open to deep forecourt and Mall, has storeys and attic main block, 11 windows wide, with three storey three-window wings, the main block with prominent, tetrastyle, two storey portico centrepiece, its low ground storey with cast iron coupled Greek Doric columns and the upper with giant coupled stone Corinthian columns carrying entablature and pediment with sculpture by Baily and crowning figures in Coade stone by W Croggan; the cast iron Doric colonnade is returned across ground floor of main block which has pavilion end bays dressed with giant pairs of Corinthian columns; tall blind attic; the friezes either side of portico by Westmacott and originally intended for the attic of Marble Arch.

West garden front, by Nash: Long symmetrical composition with five accents; basement, ground floor, piano nobile through two storeys and attic to main block with three-storey wings; the main block with five-window central bow and three-window side ranges terminating in one-window pavilions; the wings each of four windows with similar pavilion end bays; ground floor channelled, giant engaged Corinthian columns to bow and detached coupled Corinthian columns to pavilions carrying entablature with rich rinceau frieze; large frieze panels of Coade stone over first floor by Croggan; the attic above half dome of bow (Blore's replacement of Nash's dome) has a frieze by Westmacott intended for Marble Arch; the range is flanked at east of terrace by projecting conservatories in the form of hexastyle Ionic temples with pediments; the south conservatory altered as palace chapel in 1893 and as the Queen's Gallery in 1962.

Interior: State Apartments in west range at firs floor level, with two suites divided by the Picture Gallery, c1829-36 by Nash and Blore, in rich and already eclectic Graeco-Roman style with Louis XIV and Wren details in mouldings and motifs, approached via the Grand Hall with marble columns and Nash's recasting of the original Buckingham House staircase as well as by Pennethorne's Grand Staircase to south extended by Pennethorne to give access to his Ballroom block; the Picture Gallery redecorated 1914; the interior of the Ballroom retains Pennethorne's ceiling and throne recess but redecorated by Ludwig Gruner in 1902 when the walls, windows and doorways were remodelled by Verity; the plainer ground floor rooms below the State Apartments survive virtually as designed by Nash. Marble Arch (qv) designed by Nash in 1828 as the forecourt gateway was removed by Blore's east range and re-erected in 1851 on its present site.

History of the Kings Works; Vol VI
Buckingham Palace; J Harris, G de Bellaigue & O Miller
John Nash; John Summerson

Listing NGR: TQ2899779614

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Buckingham Palace at Wikipedia
• Buckingham Palace official website
• Wikidata Q42182

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)