Buckingham Palace: free audio guide, tickets and opening times

Buckingham Palace is the King’s official London residence and a working royal palace, at the end of the Mall. Its 19 State Rooms open to visitors only in summer: the 2026 season ran from 9 July to 27 September, and the 2027 dates are announced in November. This is its free audio guide, made to be heard at the railings, so it works on any day of the year.

What the audio guide tells you

The audio guide lasts about 2 minutes 45 seconds. Press play at the railings, with the palace in front of you and the white Victoria Memorial behind you: it tells you what you are looking at and ends by pointing you towards Big Ben. These are its stops:

Inside the State Rooms you will not need it: the summer ticket includes the palace’s own multimedia guide. This one is for the outside, and for the 9 months of the year without the summer opening.

Opening times: when you can go inside in 2026 and 2027

The calendar decides what you can see. The State Rooms open only for the summer, and from October to May the palace opens only on selected dates for small-group guided tours. This is the calendar on the official Royal Collection Trust pages, read on 28 September 2026:

If you are planning next summer, watch November: that is when the 2027 dates are published and the tickets go on sale, including the £1 tickets for people on Universal Credit and other named UK benefits. The State Rooms work with timed entry, so arrive 15 minutes before your slot. Check the official Buckingham Palace visit page for the dates and times of your day.

Buckingham Palace tickets, prices and rules at the door

The summer ticket costs less if you book ahead. These were the official prices for the State Rooms in summer 2026:

The ticket includes a multimedia guide in 9 languages, with a British Sign Language version with subtitles and an audio-described guide. Guiding is not allowed inside, so groups use it too. In summer 2026 a combined ticket for the palace and the Royal Mews took 10% off both.

Out of season, the price is different: the winter guided tours cost £100 per person, last about 1 hour 30 minutes, are for small groups and start at selected times between 10:00 and 15:30.

A few rules stop people at the door, so read them before you go:

• No photography inside.
• No pushchairs.
• No food or drink except bottled water.
• Airport-style security check, so arrive 15 minutes before your time.
• The visitor entrance is on Buckingham Gate, on the south side of the palace, not at the front railings.

The route takes you through large rooms on 2 floors, and in summer it can get very warm inside. You leave along a long gravel path through the garden, so wear shoes you can walk in.

What to do at Buckingham Palace the rest of the year

For most of the year the State Rooms are closed, but the palace still has 4 things to give you.

The Changing the Guard. It takes place in the forecourt, the space between the railings and the palace, facing the Mall. It fills up well before it starts. Come from the Victoria side and avoid arriving from Green Park at that time, when roads around the palace are closed. The days and times vary, so check the official schedule for the day before you set off.

The King’s Gallery. It is open daily, except on a few dates (20 and 21 October and 24 to 26 December 2026, and 26 January 2027), and shows changing exhibitions from the Royal Collection. Until 18 April 2027 it holds Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, the largest exhibition of the late Queen’s fashion ever mounted, for the centenary of her birth. An adult ticket costs £22 in 2026 and £24 in 2027; young people £14 and children £11 in 2026. The gallery opened in 1962 on the site of the palace chapel, destroyed by a German bomb in the Second World War.

The Royal Mews. These are the working royal stables, open from Thursday to Monday until 1 November 2026. The star is the Gold State Coach, about 260 years old, used at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, the Platinum Jubilee in 2022 and the coronation of Charles III in 2023. Adults £18, young people £12, children £9, with a free multimedia guide.

The East Wing guided tours. From 6 November 2026 to 31 January 2027, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, they are the only way to visit the palace in winter. They cost £100, last about 1 hour 30 minutes and are for small groups, so book early.

Buckingham Palace history: from a townhouse to the King’s office

The name comes from its first owner. In 1703 Buckingham House was built as a townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. In 1761 George III bought it as a private home for Queen Charlotte, and it became known as the Queen’s House.

In 1826 George IV decided to turn it into a palace with the architect John Nash. The costs ran so high that Nash was removed in 1829, and Edward Blore finished the work. Queen Victoria, in 1837, was the first sovereign to live here. Between 1847 and 1849 a new wing closed the courtyard: that is the East Front, the one facing the Mall, with the balcony where the royal family steps out on the big occasions. In 1913 Aston Webb refaced it in Portland stone as the backdrop to the Victoria Memorial in front of the gates; the Mall, the avenue that runs from Admiralty Arch, was completed in 1911.

Today the palace has 775 rooms, 19 of them State Rooms. The summer route climbs the Grand Staircase and crosses the Blue Drawing Room, the Green Drawing Room, the Throne Room, where investitures are usually held, and the Picture Gallery, 50 m long and lit from above, with works by Rubens, Van Dyck and Canaletto. In the White Drawing Room stands a gilded Erard piano made for Queen Victoria. The largest room is the Ballroom of 1854, 36.6 m long, where state banquets are held.

Behind the palace lies a 39-acre (16 ha) garden, the largest private garden in London, with a lake and more than 1,000 trees. The State Rooms have opened to visitors every summer since 1993: the money first paid for the rebuilding of Windsor Castle after the fire of 1992, and today it pays for the care of the Royal Collection.

And the King? Charles III lives at Clarence House, a short walk away, and comes to Buckingham Palace to work: it is still the monarch’s administrative headquarters, with more than 700 people on the staff.

Getting there and step-free access

Buckingham Palace is in London SW1A 1AA, at the end of the Mall. 4 Tube stations are about 10 minutes away on foot: Victoria, Green Park, St James’s Park and Hyde Park Corner. By train, London Victoria is 10 minutes away and Charing Cross 20 minutes. Buses 11, 211, C1 and C10 stop on Buckingham Palace Road. For the Changing the Guard, remember: come from the Victoria side.

Disabled visitors pay the reduced price, and an access companion goes free. The standard route is not step-free: step-free access has to be booked in advance with the Specialist Sales team, on +44 303 123 7324 or at specialistsales@rct.uk. If you book the step-free route, they may also be able to arrange accessible parking, subject to availability, booked at least 3 full working days before your visit. There are accessible toilets, assistance dogs are welcome and an access guide can be downloaded as a PDF.

Big Ben is about 1.2 km east in a straight line, across St James’s Park, and that is where the audio guide sends you. The London Eye is about 1.6 km away, on the other side of the river, and from its capsules you can pick out the palace to the west. Tower Bridge is about 4.6 km east, downriver. Both have their own free audio guide, and more are on the free audio guides of London page.

About 2.3 km north-east as the crow flies is the British Museum: entry is free, it opens daily from 10:00 to 17:00 (until 20:30 on Fridays), and it holds the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures. A good plan for a rainy afternoon.

Reading this in Spanish? The same guide, written for a Spanish-speaking visitor and narrated in Spanish, is at Palacio de Buckingham en vozviajera.com.