Buckingham Palace may be the seat of Britain's royal family and the home of Queen Elizabeth II, but it's also a very old building that apparently hasn't been updated with modern plumbing, heating, and electricity — or updated at all, really, since Elizabeth was crowned in 1952. That's about to change, and depending on whether the Crown Estate, which owns the property on the queen's behalf, opts to repair the palace all at once or in pieces, the cost for refurbishing Buckingham could be as high as £150 million ($236 million).
If Buckingham Palace is to be repaired and updated in one fell swoop, Queen Elizabeth and her family will have to move out. It would be the longest spell the queen has spent out of her London home since World War II, before she ascended to the throne.
Repairing Buckingham Palace is "a mammoth task — bits of the building keep falling off," and the palace is filled with asbestos, former Royal Press Secretary Dickie Arbiter tells BBC News in the video below. And while the queen and her family and staff will probably have to move out, he added, that's not such a big deal: "Remember, Windsor Castle is right down the road. It's sort of 25 miles away, which is not the end of the world." Watch below. Peter Weber
The Week
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