LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth will vacate her private rooms at Buckingham Palace in 2025 as part of a 10-year refit of the building to prevent a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or a flood, a senior royal official said on Friday.
The palace is undergoing a 369 million pound ($481 million) reservicing program to replace aging and dangerous electrical wiring and boilers. It started in April last year and is due to be completed in 2027.
Towards the end of the works, the 92-year-old monarch and her husband Prince Philip, 97, will have to move out of their apartments in the palace’s north wing for about two years when work starts there in 2025.
“The queen is immensely pragmatic and she wants to stay in the palace,” a senior royal official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. “She said ‘let me know where you would like me to go’.”
So far, 3,000 meters of old cabling has been removed from the palace and work is now underway to empty the famous East Wing, the public facade of the building which includes the balcony on which the royal family appears on special occasions.
Next week, a compound for 200 contractors will be erected on the forecourt to one side of the building.
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However, the palace will remain fully open for state visits and other regular events during the overhaul and its outward appearance will be unaffected as there will be no scaffolding, said Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Queen’s Household
“I am absolutely convinced that by making this investment in the palace now, we will... avert a much more costly and potentially catastrophic failure of the building in the years to come,” he said.
The emptying of the East Wing will mean three of the queen’s four children — Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — moving their offices. Heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles will be unaffected as his London home is at nearby Clarence House.
Some 3,000 artworks and other items such as beds, clocks and chandeliers from the Royal Collection, housed in 200 rooms in the wing — the palace’s largest — will be moved out over six months to allow the work to begin.
Tim Knox, Director of the Royal Collection, said some of these items would go on public display at other palaces while 150 objects would return to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, George IV’s “bizarre” seaside home on the south coast of England from where they were moved in 1850 when that residence was sold.
Buckingham Palace was built in 1703 as a large private home and was only acquired by the monarch, King George III, in 1761.
The East Wing was part of an extension built in the reign of Queen Victoria. The front facade was refaced in 1914 in harder-wearing Portland stone when George V — Elizabeth’s grandfather — was on the throne.
Queen Elizabeth to vacate her Buckingham Palace rooms for refit — aide
Queen Elizabeth to vacate her Buckingham Palace rooms for refit — aide
- Thousands of works of art, clocks, chandeliers and furniture have begun being removed from Buckingham Palace as part of a major refit
- More than 200 rooms over 6 floors of the east wing will be emptied to prepare for the replacement of aging electrics and pipework
Dutch couple’s marriage annulled due to ChatGPT speech
- The pair said “I do” and the officiant declared them “not only husband and wife, but above all a team”
- The judge found that they had not actually sworn to fulfil their marriage duties
AMSTERDAM: A Dutch couple had their marriage annulled after the person officiating used a ChatGPT-generated speech that was intended to be playful but failed to meet legal requirements, according to a court ruling published this week.
The pair from the city of Zwolle, whose names were redacted from the January 5 decision under Dutch privacy rules, argued that they had intended to marry regardless of whether the right wording was used when they took their vows.
According to the decision, the person officiating their ceremony last April 19 asked whether they would “continue supporting each other, teasing each other and embracing each other, even when life gets difficult.”
The pair said “I do” and the officiant declared them “not only husband and wife, but above all a team, a crazy couple, each other’s love and home base.”
But the judge found that they had not actually sworn to fulfil their marriage duties — something that is required under Dutch law.
“The court understands that the date in the marriage deed is important to the man and woman, but cannot ignore what the law says.” It ordered the marriage removed from the Zwolle city registry.
