Buckingham Palace open for tours despite needed repairs
This weekend, Buckingham Palace throws its gilded doors open to the public for its summer exhibition while the queen is at her summer residence. But as CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, the royals say the 300-year old palace needs a lot of work.
It's a London landmark. Tourists flock to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the Guard, and occasionally to see the royals themselves. Everyone remembers William and Kate's newlywed kiss on the balcony. Inside, there are 830,000 square feet of ornate space -- that's 775 rooms.
The largest room in Buckingham Palace is the State Banqueting Hall, where the queen gives her fanciest dinner parties. When the table is fully laid, 170 can sit down at once.
"The team will start preparing about six months ahead of time," Royal Collection Trust curator Anna Reynolds said. "They start planning the guest lists and deciding where everyone's going to sit. You start laying the table cloths, putting down the napkins and the various different components that all come together to create just a magical spectacle."
President Obama was part of such a spectacle as the guest of honor in 2011.
"You have the footman's team, who are responsible for preparing the silver gilt, the porcelain, the glasses, you have the florists obviously, you have the dresses team, who create the queen's outfits and hats and choose the jewelry in conjunction with the queen," Reynolds said. "So all those elements really come together to make a special occasion."
But behind all the gilt and glory, all is not well. The old palace needs repairs, and not for the first time.
During WWII a German bomb demolished a whole wing, which had to be re-built. The palace also had a facelift in 1950 and, since then, like any home, it's had constant minor touch ups.
But what's being proposed now is a major $250 million top-to-bottom renovation. Good for the building, but not so good for its elderly occupants. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip will probably have to move out.
But fortunately, as a reigning monarch, the queen has Windsor Castle just 25 miles up the road.