The Official residence of the British monarch since 1837 and one of London's grandest buildings, Buckingham Palace is situated on the Mall, an area next to St James' Park and close to Trafalgar Square. It is both a major tourist attraction for overseas visitors and a rallying point for the British people at times of triumph or disaster.

The core of the building was created in 1703 as a large townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham. It was acquired by King George III in 1761. Over the next 75 years it was enlarged and added-to and became the official residence of the monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.

The palace is divided into state rooms, used by Queen Elizabeth for official business and state entertaining, and private rooms, which are the resident rooms of the Queen and royal family. The state rooms are open to the public during August and September. Around 450 full-time staff work on site.

The palace enjoys the largest private garden in London. Originally laid out by famed landscape gardener Capability Brown and redesigned later by William Townsend of Kew Gardens and John Nash, the gardens feature an artificial lake which is supplied by water from the Serpentine, Hyde Park's river.

The palace has a rich history of entertainments and social functions. During the Victorian era it played host to some of the world's greatest musicians, with Felix Mendelssohn and Johan Strauss II amongst the greats to have performed there. Strauss' Alice Polka was first performed in the palace in 1849 in honour of Princess Alice, the Queen's daughter. Today more than 50,000 people visit the palace each year as guests to banquets, lunches, dinners and the royal garden parties.

The forecourt of the palace is used for the Changing of the Guard, a major ceremony and internationally-famous tourist attraction. The ceremony occurs every day during the summer months and every other day during the winter.

Specific rooms are used for the different functions that take place in the palace. Investitures (the conferring of titles, including knighthoods) and other awards ceremonies take place in the palace's Victorian Ballroom. Royal christenings take place in the Music Room since the royal chapel was bombed in World War II. The Queen's first three children were all baptised in the Music Room.

The palace had varied luck during the two world wars, escaping relatively unscathed in the first but suffering serious damage in the second. During World War I the chief change at the palace was that the king publicly locked his wine cellar on the advice of the government, who thought he should send an example of abstention to the masses. However, the people continued to drink throughout the war, leaving the king teetotal and, by all accounts, furious at his enforced abstinence.

During the second world war the palace was bombed no less than seven times by the Nazis, who hoped that damaging or destroying the palace would demoralise the British people. Perhaps the most serious damage occurred when the palace chapel was destroyed in 1940. This was publicised in cinema news reels throughout the UK, to show how misfortune during war is no respecter of class or position. The royal family were filmed inspecting the damage to their home, and Queen Elizabeth famously remarked "I'm glad we have been bombed. Now I can look the East End in the face".

In 1940 RAF pilot Ray Holmes performed an act of astonishing heroism, when he rammed a German plane attempting to bomb the palace. Having run out of ammunition he made the quick choice that the only way to bring down the enemy plane was to ram it with his own aircraft. Both planes were brought to the ground, but both pilots survived and the incident was captured on film.

Although the palace is manned by heavy security, a man named Michael Fagan has successfully broken into the palace not once but twice. On his first attempt he scaled a drainpipe and entered the palace through an unlocked window on the roof. He spent half an hour wandering around, viewing the royal portraits and resting on the throne and then entered the postroom where he drank half a bottle of wine before becoming tired and leaving.

On the second attempt, in 1982, he managed to evade electronic alarms, palace guards and police stationed at the palace and entered the Queen's private bedchamber. An alarm sensor detected him, but the alarm was turned off by a member of staff who presumed it was faulty. He made his way to the Queen's bedchamber, on the way lacerating his hand on an ashtray. The Queen was awoken when Fagan disturbed a curtain. Once she was awake he sat on the edge of her bed talking to her for about ten minutes.

The Queen phoned twice for police but none came and help only appeared when she asked for some cigarettes; when the maid who brought them did not reappear, staff became suspicious and footman Paul Whybrew went to check on the Queen and the maid. The incident shocked palace staff and indeed the whole nation, but the Queen was unruffled and had been relatively unperturbed when faced with a strange man with a bloodied hand in her room, awakening her from sleep.

In all the palace contains 19 state rooms, 52 principal bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms. The queen lives in a suite of private rooms in the North Wing.