Renovations are continuing to take place at Buckingham Palace. A video posted on the royal family's official Twitter account show around 3,000 items from the Royal Collection being moved from the East Wing to elsewhere in the palace, other venues across the country and storage. Workers are tackling three of the wings in clockwise order, starting with the East, which features the world-famous balcony and has 200 rooms spread over six floors.
More than 200 paintings, 40 chandeliers, 1,000 glass and china pieces and 100 mirrors are being moved from the Yellow Drawing Room, the Principal Corridor, the Centre Room and the Chinese Dining Room so that the palace can be rewired. The bigger items, such as fireplaces, which cannot be removed will be protected by boxes while work continues around them. The repairs started in spring last year after it was decided that 3,000 metres of dangerous vulcanised rubber cabling would have to be ripped out to prevent a potentially "catastrophic" building failure.
© Photo: PAMore than 200 paintings, 40 chandeliers, 1,000 glass and china pieces and 100 mirrors are being moved
Sir Michael Stevens, Keeper of the Privy Purse, previously said: "The palace's electrical cabling, plumbing and heating have not been updated since the 1950s and the building's infrastructure is now in urgent need of an overhaul to avoid the very real danger of catastrophic failure leading to fire or flood, and incalculable damage to the building and priceless works of art in the Royal Collection."
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© Photo: PAThousands of metres of rubber cabling are being ripped out
Master of the Household Tony-Johnstone-Burt is overseeing the £369million public funds that are being spent on the Queen's home and said he is taking the responsibility "extremely seriously". He is convinced the repairs will be done within budget and time. "We all take the responsibility that comes with using public funds to do all this work on such a national icon like Buckingham Palace extremely seriously indeed," Mr Johnstone-Burt said.
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"I am absolutely convinced that by making this investment in the palace now we will not only avert much more costly and potentially catastrophic failure of the building in the years to come but in the short term... will provide the opportunity for even more people to see this remarkable collection." Two lifts will be installed to improve access to visitors with mobility problems.
© Photo: PAA photo of The Centre Room in the palace
Works on the Queen's rooms will not begin until 2025 to 2027. A senior royal official said: "The Queen, as you know, is immensely pragmatic and she wants to stay in the palace and she said, 'Let me know where you would like me to go' and she'll go wherever she agrees is appropriate."
The Duke of York, the Princess Royal and the Earl and Countess of Wessex are all preparing to move out of Buckingham Palace while it undergoes the raft of repairs. The royals all have private apartments there as well as private offices. They will move across to nearby St James's Palace in the meantime, where Princess Anne already has rooms. The works will take around ten years to complete. In the meantime, it will be business as usual in the palace, with historic ceremonies such as the Changing of the Guard continuing.
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