20 Secrets Buckingham Palace Is Hiding from Strangers

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Ever dreamed about living in a palace? Like Buckingham Palace, for example? Well it's

a nice place, so why not? This ostentatious home is pretty old and huge, but the location

is close to schools and shopping! And besides that, it's got a lot of interesting secrets.

When you learn about them you'll get a glimpse of what it's like to live there.

So, counting down from:

#20. A Whopping number of rooms (“Whoppingas it's used here means: “boatload”,

overabundance”, and of courseglut”) We all know that Buckingham Palace is huge,

but just to help you comprehend its size, get ready for this informationit has

775 rooms! This number includes over 200 bedrooms. Honestly, I can't even imagine so many rooms

in one building. At least now I understand why they need so much cleaning staff. But

I can't help but wonder how everyone who lives there doesn't get lost. Is there some sort

of a map that helps them navigate around? Ooh, that's a question.

19. No waiting in line Well, since Buckingham Palace has so many

rooms, obviously there should be a lot of bathrooms, right? Yes, it has 78 bathrooms!

Way too many toilets to clean! On the bright side, and we are, if there's any kind of Royal

function, none of the guests have to wait in line no matter how large the event is.

18. ATM in the basement Sometimes you need to get cash fast, so you

go to the bank or start looking for an ATM. But if you're a member of the Royal family,

you can forget about all that hassle. All you have to do is go to the basement of Buckingham

Palace because there's an ATM right there! How convenient!

17. Moving chandeliers In the time before electricity, it was a real

challenge for the staff of Buckingham Palace to clean all the huge chandeliers. They had

to teeter on ladders trying to reach them. But now everything is much easier; thanks

to technology, chandeliers can be lowered to a manageable level simply by pressing a

button on the remote control.

16. A fully equipped doctor's office In case of any medical emergency, the members

of the Royal family usually go to a hospital where they're treated by the best doctors

in the country. But if there's a situation that prevents them from doing so, they don't

have to worry since they can receive treatment without leaving the palace. The doctor's office

located there is even equipped for surgical procedures.

15. The largest private garden in London Imagine 30 football fields and you'll get

the idea about the size of the Palace garden that stretches for 39 acres. So in this football

analogy, that makes the Palace into the luxury boxes over looking the 30 football fields.

Oh never mind. The garden is divided into 3 main parts: Harrisons, which includes the

massive lawn; a rose garden, where you can find a famous 15-feet Waterloo Vase (or vahse)

and see 25 varieties of England's national flower; and the Yard, which is a less manicured

area.

14. Secret river The River Tyburn flows under the south wing

of the palace, revealing the fact that the building was set up on swampland. Of course,

it doesn't mean that part of the palace is floating on water, but A Ri ver Runs Through

It, or at least underneath it, adding to the uniqueness of the Royal residence.

13. Post office You probably already have the idea that Buckingham

Palace isn't simply a building, but more like a mini-town, since the royalty can get pretty

much any service there. And, yes, that includes the mail. Since the Queen is the queen, using

a regular post office isn't an option for her. That's why her palace has its own post

office. Pretty cool! Speaking of mailing

12. Zip code Usually, zip codes are assigned to specific

neighborhoods, but when it comes to Buckingham palace, everything seems to be an exception.

This truly massive place has its own zip code! If you ever feel like writing a letter to

the Queen, or maybe sending her some cute gift, here it is: SW1A 1AA. Just don't address

it toLiz”.

11. Spooky neighbor It seems like any building that's really old

has to have a ghost or two. The same goes for the Palace. The site where the royal residence

is located now was once occupied by a monastery. And some believe that's the reason why the

place is haunted by the ghost of a monk who used to live in that monastery. Do you think

it might be true? Sound off in the comments!

10. Labyrinthe of secret tunnels Some used to say that there's a secret tunnel

that connects Buckingham Palace and London Tube. It's just a rumor, but the royal residence

does have tunnels. There's a whole underground system of passageways that allows getting

from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House, as well as the House of Parliament. This system

serves for security purposes, obviously. But I wonder if the Queen ever used it just because

she didn't feel like using a car to get to those places? Maybe she drives herself around

in a golf cart down there.

9. It wasn't originally built for kings and queens

This one might surprise you, but before the palace turned into the building we know it

as today, it was just a three-story block house owned by John Sheffield, the Duke of

Buckingham. In 1761, King George III decided to buy it for £21,000 (which is now around

$5 million dollars, which is still a steal), and started the process of transforming the

estate into a magnificent sanctuary for his wife, Queen Charlotte. However, the first

monarch who named it as their official residence was Queen Victoria. She did it after her coronation

in 1837.

8. Unexpected visitor During the long history of Buckingham Palace,

there were a few cases of ordinary people sneaking inside. In 1838, a 14-year-old Edward

Jones made his first successful attempt to get in there. He was caught and it turned

out that the boy stole some items from Queen Victoria's wardrobe. A few years later he

did it again two more times! During the last time, he was found hiding under a sofa and

got arrested.

7. Is anybody home? If you ever visit London and find yourself

near the palace, you can find out in no time if the Queen is at home. When she's there,

the Royal Standard flag is flown over her residence. And when Her Majesty is outthe

Union Flag. Every time the Queen arrives or departs, a special person called a flag sergeant

changes the flags.

6. Tik-tok's everywhere As you can guess, The Queen and all other

members of the Royal family have a pretty packed-up schedule. That's why it's so important

for them to know the right time in order not to be late. This most likely explains the

number of clocks in Buckingham Palaceover 350. And there's even a special person to

look after thema clockmaster, whose duty is to wind them all up every week. And boy,

he better not be late!

5. The number of visitors Obviously, when you're the Queen, you just

have to host a lot of events and functions. More than 50,000 guests visit Buckingham Palace

every year. Just one typical garden party hosts around 8,000 guests. To feed them all,

the staff has to serve 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and 20,000 slices of cake.

Wait, let's pencil that out. (hmmcarry the 3…) So each guest receives 3 &1/2 cups

of tea, and 2 &1/2 sandwiches and piece of cake. Well, you won't go away hungry!

4. Tours for ordinary people If you doubt the Queen will invite you to

one of her parties any time soon, you can always take a tour of Buckingham Palace. Usually,

visitors are allowed only for a couple months a year, from the end of July to September,

because this is the time when the Queen is away. How convenient. However, there's another

way for you to see what this splendid building hidesyou can take a 360-degree tour online

and check out the throne room, picture gallery, and ballrooms without leaving your home. I'm

thinking the 78 bathrooms aren't on the tour.

3. Oldest helicopter pad in London Well, kind of. In 1953, a helicopter landed

in the palace garden for the first time, and since then, that spot served as a helicopter

landing area without any special construction for many years. But in 2000, the Royal family

finally decided to build an official helipad because they'd had enough of the lawn being

destroyed by helicopter. The helipad was created from a layer of matting underneath grass,

because a concrete one was considered not pleasing to the eye.

2. Not a crumb goes waste Sitting at work and can't wait to get home

and eat those pizza leftovers from yesterday? Well, the Royal family does pretty much the

same. Of course, they employ the best chefs who cook delicious meals for them and the

guests every day. But if there were leftovers from a meal, they'd be stored away in a fridge

and reused in a meal the following day.

1. Birth announcement As you probably know, England is known for

its love of traditions. And even though we're living in the digital era when the news from

all over the world fits on your smartphone, the Royal family still follows a really old

custom. When there's a Royal birth, they place an official announcement outside the main

entrance of the Palace to let everybody know if it's a boy or a girl and the weight of

the newborn as well.

Which of those secrets impressed you the most? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned

something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a friend.

Buthey! – don't go tour the 78 bathrooms just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for

you to check out. All you have to do is pick the left or right video, click on it, and

voila ! Stay on the Bright Side of life!