Grand Gate Of Buckingham Palace Opens To Visitors, Palace Hosts Exhibition [VIDEO]

Visitors to Buckingham Palace this year will be able to enter through the Grand Gate of the stupendous London palace for the first time. This is the same entrance where a red carpet is rolled out when famous guests and foreign dignitaries arrive to visit the queen. Visitors will get a glimpse of the Australian State Coach when they enter the palace.

This year Buckingham Palace is hosting an exhibition titled “A Royal Welcome,” which will give visitors insight into behind-the-scene preparations during an official state visit to the palace, which is otherwise inaccessible to visitors.

A state banquet has been set up in the Ballroom, complete with glittering silver gild on the table, flower arrangements and napkins, to show guests what it would look like, said Anna Reynolds, a curator at the Royal Collection Trust.

Besides, the royal kitchen has been arranged to show what food is cooked during official visits and the porcelain and linen used, Hello reported. The queen’s dresses workroom has also been recreated with the sewing machine that her personal dresser used, to make Elizabeth II’s clothes. The way she accessorizes her couture dresses has also been shown in the exhibition, Reynolds said.

There are 19 state rooms in the palace, some of which are open to visitors for two months every summer. The state rooms are beautifully furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Poussin. They also house classic furniture from England and France.

The visitors will also be treated to the 350 species of wildflowers in the garden. This is the finale of the visit, which ends in a walk along the south side of the garden with views over the famous lake, according to the official website of the Buckingham Palace.

It is during Queen Elizabeth II’s annual visit to Balmoral in Scotland that the rooms are opened from August to September. They are also laid out as they are during state visits. This year the Buckingham Palace opened Aug. 1 and will remain so until Sept. 27.

Buckingham Palace is one of the last working royal palaces in the world. It is also known as the queen’s London home and office. In 2014, around 62,000 people visited as invited guests for occasions ranging from a private audience with the monarch to garden parties for thousands.