George III purchased Buckingham House in 1761, and it became known simply as The Queen's House. It was comfortable but modest by royal standards. The real work of enlargement began in the early nineteenth century under the architects John Nash and Edward Blore, who constructed three wings around a central courtyard, transforming the house into something approximating a palace. But it was Queen Victoria who made it official. On her accession in 1837, she moved in and declared it the London residence of the British monarch. The last major structural additions came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the East Front -- the facade most people picture when they think of Buckingham Palace -- which contains that famous balcony. The East Front was refaced in Portland stone in 1913, giving the building the pale, classical appearance it has today.

The original early-nineteenth-century interior designs survive in many of the State Rooms, featuring brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis lazuli. Nash's work for George IV was intended to create grand, theatrical spaces. The State Rooms run along the garden front of the palace and are used for official entertaining: state banquets, investitures, and receptions for visiting heads of state. The Throne Room, the White Drawing Room, and the Picture Gallery -- which houses works by Rembrandt, Rubens, and Vermeer -- are opened to the public during the summer months when the monarch is in residence elsewhere. The palace contains 775 rooms, including 19 State Rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms.

During the Second World War, Buckingham Palace was bombed nine times. The most serious attack came on 13 September 1940 when a German bomb destroyed the palace chapel. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were in residence at the time. The Queen famously remarked that the bombing allowed her to 'look the East End in the face' -- a reference to the heavy bombing of working-class London neighborhoods. The chapel was never rebuilt as a place of worship. Instead, the Queen's Gallery was constructed on the site and opened to the public in 1962, displaying works from the Royal Collection. The palace survived the Blitz as a symbol of continuity, its flag flying above the damaged roof while London burned around it.

The East Front balcony, added during the 1913 refacing, became the stage for some of the twentieth century's most iconic moments. The royal family appeared there on VE Day in 1945, with Winston Churchill joining them to acknowledge the cheering crowds. Every coronation since has culminated in the balcony appearance. Royal weddings, jubilees, and Trooping the Colour all build to the moment when the doors behind the balcony open and the family steps out. Below, the Mall stretches eastward to Admiralty Arch, lined with Union flags on ceremonial occasions. The Victoria Memorial, a massive marble monument to the queen who made the palace official, stands in the traffic circle before the gates. The Changing of the Guard -- one of London's most watched free spectacles -- takes place in the palace forecourt, the sentries in their red tunics and bearskins marching to the sound of a military band.