Step Through a Former Chapel Into the Royal Collection
You come to the south-west corner of Buckingham Palace, facing the garden, and the building in front of you looks like a small Ionic temple — columns, a pediment, the sort of structure John Nash designed as one of three identical conservatories or pavilions at the palace. That is the shell. What it holds now is the King's Gallery, the exhibition space of the Royal Collection Trust, and it stands on ground with a layered history: built by 1831, converted into a private chapel for Queen Victoria in 1843, destroyed in an air raid in 1940, and redeveloped as a gallery in 1962 at the suggestion of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Inside, you are walking through a purpose-built gallery adjacent to a working royal residence, in a building that has been a conservatory, a chapel and now a home for the Royal Collection. Plan on giving it real time rather than treating it as a five-minute stop on the way past the palace gates.
Pair It With the Palace and the Parks
The gallery sits directly beside Buckingham Palace in Westminster, so build your day around the neighbourhood rather than treating the visit as an isolated errand.
- Buckingham Palace itself is open for tours during the summer months only — in 2022, from 22 July to 30 September — and is worth seeing even if you don't go in. The nearest Tube is Green Park.
- The Changing of the Guard spans three locations — Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace and Wellington Barracks — and usually begins at 10:43. Check the changing-guard.com dates page for details before you commit to a morning.
- St James's Park lies between Buckingham Palace on the west and Horse Guards Parade on the east, with gardens suited to strolling and picnics. Walk through it and you have linked the gallery to Westminster without touching a bus.
- Hyde Park and adjoining Kensington Gardens make up a huge open space in central London, popular for picnics. Within Kensington Gardens you'll find the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Playground — a free playground for young children featuring a huge wood pirate ship.
When to Come
Summer is the season that rewards you twice over: the palace tours run only during the summer months, and the ceremonial calendar is at its busiest. If you want the Changing of the Guard as part of your visit, arrive with time to spare before the usual 10:43 start and confirm the date in advance, since it does not run every day. Outside those months, the gallery remains the reason to come to this corner of Westminster — a quieter, more focused visit.
Eat Nearby, Then Keep Going
Two of London's great landmarks keep their own kitchens, which makes them unusually easy to fold into a full day rather than a quick look.
- Westminster Abbey has a restaurant and a café that both serve good food, and it sits a short walk from the gallery in Westminster.
- The Tower of London, south-east of the City by the Thames, is over 900 years old, contains the Crown Jewels, is guarded by Beefeaters and is a World Heritage site — and you can have a good meal in one of the buildings on the property.
- If you'd rather stay central and free, remember that the majority of London's museums have no entrance charge, so you can make multiple visits with ease. Special or temporary exhibitions usually attract an admission charge.
Make a Day of the Wider City
From the gallery, the rest of London is a short Tube ride in any direction. Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster — including the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the name of its bell, Big Ben — are in Westminster, and tours of the Palace of Westminster are available in July and August when Parliament is away on summer recess. Trafalgar Square, home of Nelson's Column and the lions, is overlooked by the National Gallery and has been pedestrianised. St Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren's great accomplishment built after the 1666 Great Fire of London, still seats its dome over the City, with a Whispering Gallery and a viewing area that takes in the nearby Millennium Bridge. And if you want a day trip, Richmond Park is a huge green space with a thriving deer population and excellent cycling, reached by Tube to Richmond and then bus 65 or 371; Bushy Park, near Hampton Court Palace, is more low-key and also has a large deer population.
Start with a date. Check the summer window for the palace tours, confirm a Changing of the Guard morning if that matters to you, and book your gallery slot around it. Then give the King's Gallery the hours it deserves — a former chapel, a Nash pavilion, and a collection that has outlasted both.