Researchers Recreated Buckingham Palace's Floor Plans

london, england april 20 the band of the coldstream guards form up around the main gate of buckingham palace during the changing of the guard ceremony on april 20, 2011 in london, england soldiers guard queen elizabeth ii and other royals at buckingham palace in a 24 hour rotation with a ceremonial hand over at 1130 in the morning photo by peter macdiarmid wpa pool getty images

(Image credit: Getty Images/Peter Macdiarmid)

published 10 May 2020

Buckingham Palace is one of the most iconic buildings on the planet. The 775-room building has served as the official London residence of British sovereigns since 1837. In spite of its massive place in pop culture and history, no current floor plan is readily available to the public.

Determined to give the public more insight into the layout of the iconic residence, researchers at HomeAdvisor set about crafting the most accurate version of the floor plan currently available on the internet. To create the floor plan, their team poured through every available photo and video of the interiors of Buckingham Palace to uncover the layout of every room. They also gathered additional information from the Royal Collection Trust and the official website of the British Royal Family, and then handed all of their intel over to architect Jelena Popovic to create floor plans for each section of the Palace. Those plans were then sent along to an architectural designer, along with high-quality images of Buckingham Palace to use as reference to create the final designs.

It's worth noting that, even though these floor-plans are accurate according to all available information about the palace, there are some areas of Buckingham Palace that remain a mystery to the public and are totally off-limits to everyone except for actual royals and official palace staff.

Take a look at this gallery for an unprecedented peek inside the Queen's London home.

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Buckingham Palace

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The Central Block

The first thing you see when you enter Buckingham Palace, according to the HomeAdvisor floor plans, is the grand staircase, which is lined with luxurious red carpet and decorated with portraits of the royal family.

Upstairs, you'll find the Music Room (which has hosted several royal christenings, including Prince William's). And across the hallway, there's the iconic Green Drawing Room, where the Queen hosts her weekly meetings with the Prime Minister.

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The State Dining Room

Let's zoom in a bit to one of the most important rooms in the Central Block: The State Dining Room. Notably, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding reception was held here in 2011.

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The White Drawing Room

Another important room in this part of the palace is the White Drawing Room, which is used for hosting intimate gatherings.

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The 1844 Room

Next up, we have one of the most important rooms in the palace, the 1844 Room, where the royals receive many of their most distinguished visitors (think presidents and A-list celebrities).

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The Regency Room

Next door to the 1844 Room is the Regency Room, which is one of the most well-known rooms in the palace, thanks to the Queen's Christmas broadcasts.

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The Queen's Apartments

The second of the three main sections of Buckingham Palace identified by the HomeAdvisor researchers are the Queen's Apartments. Even though the palace boasts a staggering 775 rooms, the six that make up the Queen's private apartments are definitely the ones in which the monarch spends the most time.

The Queen, like pretty much every member of the British royal family, values her privacy greatly, so very few pictures from this section of the palace have been made public over the years. The only exception to the intense privacy rule in this section Buckingham Palace is the Audience Room, where the Queen meets weekly with Prime Minister and for private meetings with the Chancellor of the Exchequer before a new budget is announced. The Queen has also been known to hold audiences here with visiting heads of state who aren't on an official state visit.

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The East Front

Finally, there's the East Front, which is set to undergo a major, £369 million makeover this year. This part of the palace contains the iconic Yellow Drawing Room, where the queen recorded her Christmas broadcast in 2004. There's also a gorgeous space called the Centre Room, which was formerly known as the Chinese Dining Room and is furnished in the Chinese regency style.

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.