Buckingham Palace
The balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk London offline.
The Changing of the Guard plays out in the forecourt, and for most of the summer you can walk the State Rooms.
What to look for
- The Centre Room behind the glass doors on the East Front — where the royal family steps out onto the balcony.
- The East Front is Portland stone, refaced by Aston Webb in 1913 — the face everyone photographs is the building's newest layer.
- The Queen Victoria Memorial stands just outside the main gates — Webb designed the facade as its backdrop, so read them as one composition.
Changing of the Guard runs daily April–July, every other day the rest of the year, in the forecourt.
Buckingham Palace is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.
- Palace of WestminsterA working parliament whose rules, by tradition, still assume MPs might draw swords on each other.