Back in April, I saw that Buckingham Palace was opening up their Garden to the public. In previous summers, they'd always open up the actual Palace to the public, but due to Covid this isn't feasible anymore. Some marketing person, or maybe it's the accountant, must have had this lightbulb moment and thought, why not open up the Gardens!!! Even the Royal family have to maintain their revenue source!!
I bought my tickets immediately and went to meet up with the Queen at the Buckingham Palace Gardens for a picnic a few days ago. Ok, I didn't really have a picnic with the Queen, that was a click bait, but I did go to her home!!!
THE GOOD
The Gardens are located at the back of the Palace, that's why the Palace may not look familiar. The view we normally see is the front like this. Incidentally, Fakebook reminded me today that I went to Buckingham Palace exactly 8 years ago. That time I went inside the Palace.
My ticket for this Garden visit was 4pm as I couldn't get an earlier slot. It wasn't very busy at that time of the day so that was good. All the other people were having their picnic as well. I'm glad I bought some snacks with me. After all, one doesn't go into the Royal gardens and not have a picnic.
The gem of the visit is of course Buckingham Palace, albeit we only get to see the back. But then, that's not a sight visitors normally get to see.
And as an added bonus, visitor can get really close to the Palace and have their picnic on the terrace. There are some tables and chairs here if one wants to sit a bit more comfortably than on the lawn. I wonder what rooms are on the other side of these windows?
There was a souvenir shop and a cafe on the grounds (of course, more revenue!!). I didn't have time to wander into the souvenir shop as the Garden closes at 6pm, and anyway, these places are normally over priced. It was certainly true of the cafe. Tea, the nation's favourite drink is £3. A normal cafe on the high street will charge you around half that price!!
| Souviner shop | Cafe |
|---|---|
 |  |
England's national flower is the rose, and apparently there's a magnificent Rose Garden on the premises. That's not part of the public ticket, you have to pay extra to see it (more revenue opportunities). I got to see a little patch, which to be honest was rather disappointing given the price of the ticket. Oh, I forgot to mention, it cost £16.50 per person, that's like US$22.50.
There was a lake on one side and that provided quite a nice secluded view of the palace.
The British weather can be very unpredictable, and it can be tough if you turn up on a bad day. There are a couple of large gazeboes on the grounds so visitors can still have their picnic, but I imagine it wont' be very nice sitting on the lawn if it's raining.
And that's all the Good about my visit to the Buckingham Palace Gardens. Yup! I kid you not!!!
THE BAD
And now for the bad.
The day before my visit, I decided to checkout the online reviews. It's a good thing I did, as that set my expectation for the day. Pretty much all the reviews I read were negative and were in line with my own experience. Where do I start....
A visit to the Buckingham Palace Garden isn't really to the gardens. There were minimal flowers, just that little patch I showed you earlier on. My sister has more flowers than that in her garden. As @choogirl said, when I showed her a photo on Discord, "That's not a garden. It's a lawn!!"
The entire gardens at Buckingham Palace is 39 acres, yet the area open to the public at the standard £16.50 ticket can be seen in the above photo. Yes, that's it!!! I reckon it would take no more than 10 minutes to walk around the perimeter of the lawn. The rest of the gardens is cordoned off and you have to pay extra to see the pretty parts. I'm not sure, but I think it's about another £20. I strolled around everywhere I could, and that only took me around half an hour including videos and photos, and an encounter with a member of staff.
And that brings me to the next rant. Many online reviews said they felt like they were constantly being monitored by the staff. When I was taking a video of the tiny patch of roses, a member of staff approached me and asked if I had taken a photo of the side of the palace as that's the Queen's private apartment.
I told him I hadn't, and asked why there weren't clear instructions on the website on what visitors could and couldn't do, especially if we weren't allowed to photo a particular area. He said, in what I felt quite a patronising way, if they listed everything on the internet it would run into pages, and that's why there are people like him advising visitors what they can and cannot do!!!!😡 There was definitely something wrong with the tone of his voice and his attitude!
And then on another occasion, I walked near the bank of the lake to get a better view. A member of staff standing about 6 or 7 meters away shouted at me to stay away from the bank. Ok, you can say he did that for my own safety but it didn't sound like that. I'm not a little kid who might slip, and if it was that dangerous, they should have cordoned it off like they have for most of the other places. Either way, staff should not be shouting at visitors!!!
Overall, my experience wasn't that great at the Palace Gardens, in fact I'd rate it as bad. The price was ok, given it was Buckingham Palace, but it was terrible value just to picnic on a lawn. There are plenty of other beautiful parks in London that are free of charge, and I'm sure no one will shout at you. If you don't make to the Palace Gardens when you visit London, don't worry, you're not missing anything.
You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below
Despite my initial disappointment at the lack of flora you still produced an interesting post of all the things you couldn't do. Of course you had to pay more for the rose garden! I mean, it's not like the Queen is rich and funded by the taxpayer or anything.
Lol, yes she's skint :)
"Skint". Brilliant British word. Thanks for the reminder and the LOL.
Yep good word, we use it here in Ireland too.
I don't normally do it, but there was plenty to rant about on this day, especially that guy who was so rude 😤
And yeah, the Queen is just like us, only she has a few more ways to earn a bit of extra cash !!!
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@livinguktaiwan wow very nice and attractive your picnic area.This place has a lot of beauty. You have traveled to this beautiful place. Landscapes carry a lot of beauty.I really like the beauty of green nature, the architecture and this pure environment.
Maybe the grouchy guy didn't see your union jack flag bag or is everyone having the same bag? 😎
I should get special VIP treatment because I have a Union Jack bag 😂
I guess that means you didn't
😭😭😭
While not anything spectacular, for me the attraction would be the history of the place. Like being in Washington D.C., there is an awe inspiring feeling knowing the history of where you were walking around. You can almost feel it, or at least I did when I visited D.C.
I wonder if the queen was peeking out her window watching you subjects?
That's what I was hoping for, and really enjoyed my previous visit inside the Palace gardens eight year ago. I think they really could have done a better job of the garden visit and not just rely on the name to sell itself. It won't work again next year.
Maybe I should have went onto the terrace and tried to peek inside, but then that nasty guy would probably jump on my back immediately!!
"That's not a garden. It's a lawn!!"
Hehehe.
Just another site to see!
Had it not been for the name, I don't think many or any would come 🙃
But, I hope you enjoy yourself, @livinguktaiwan😘😍
I recognize Tyrrell's chips, discovered them in Cambodia. Geez, kind of sounds like a bad experience overall, not well-managed, a bit overpriced, and not much to see, but such a prestigious name.
Either way that grass is really green and the scenery looks like something from a movieset. I can't believe staff were trying to micromanage you within, not very welcoming at all.
It's a nice bit of lawn with a little bit of nice scenery, that's about it. Oh, plus a couple of rude staff, but I have to be fair, not all if them were like that, most of them were very friendly
Very nice! I was talking about how you relayed your adventure that day. Now it makes me wonder how much time have you put into writing and making a cohesion to these thoughts?
I just came back to Hive yesterday because I find blogging a bit difficult on my end. Upon writing something for my blog, I get stuck in the middle and couldn't finish even just a single one. So, I did found myself out of blogging for quite some time now. But the only good thing is, I think, I keep coming back whenever I feel like it. Do you happen to know how to break this cycle? You're really good at blogging and I want to be good at writing. And I thought of blogging could help me get there.
It depends on what I'm writing, like this visit is easy as I had a lot to talk about and it was just a couple of days ago, everything is still fresh.
I started a draft last year about my trip to Petra in Jordan 7 years ago. It's an amazing trip, one of my favourite, and apart from one unique interesting incident there isn't much to talk about to not make it too informative. Many people have written about Petra, even on Hive, so I don't want to just write another 'tourist board promotion' type post.
The worse thing about a travel post is just write " This is the entrance, i went in and turned left. This is a 100 year old building, its built of stones and has four windows in the front and two doors on the side. There is a clock at the top". Personally I find that a bit bland, and prefer to read about a person's experience at the place, but not necessarily a person's experience with their friends when they're at the place. Slight difference there.
Apologies I'm ranting a bit here. But to go back to your question, I think the best thing is not to force yourself to write. Sometimes I only post once a week, and sometimes I post random things. Maybe go through the communities for inspiration, perhaps you never thought of writing about your pet, book review, coffee, nostalgic toys, how you destress yourself, stuff you grow in your garden... Hopefully you'll find something that works. Good luck!!
If you ever get an invite to one of the Queen's official garden parties, it's a lot more relaxed and you can wander around much more of the gardens. And the snap is free ;-)
Be happy you can get out and about again but still be cautious :-)
I think maybe that's what they're banking on, the thought of being in the Queen's garden become a reality. Sounds like you got an invite once upon a time, that would be a lovely story to tell.
We're learning to live with it now, 30k cases a day seems to be the norm. The good thing is there's still quite a lot of people wearing masks nowadays, almost feels a bit like Asia 🙃, even Im getting used to it, and I used ti hate masks in Taiwan. So many are aware of the situation and haven't totally dropped the ball.. yet.
Hope all is well with yourself.
The only thing they would have invited me would have been a long visit to the Tower of London but my parents went to two garden parties because of their work with the Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract.
They were so proud and had the gilt-edged invitations and long list of rules framed! Mum wasn't all that impressed with the sandwiches but hammered the cakes lol!
I do like the common sense approach that the UK is taking at the moment and although the numbers are a bit scary still, at least people are living again. We all have to adapt and learn to live with some common sense precautions, especially the elderly. I think trying to eliminate it completely is folly and I feel so sorry for the Aussies and New Zealanders who seem to be living in a never-ending prison sentence.
Nice! You reminded me my days around there years ago. FYI, a couple of images failed to show. It has happened to my posts as well many times before.
Oh! Which frontend is that? I'm on peakd.com all the time. Thanks for letting me know
Me too. It looks OK now so it wasn't permanent.
I was a little excited after reading the title. And I thought you could visit the palace and meet queen. It must be fun.
Lol, after reading the post, I think I have more flowers and trees in my garden than the palace's garden.
I might not have a lake here, but I can sit in silence without paying a penny and enjoy reading a book with a tea😄
Thanks for sharing the experience. I have not been to London but now I know a thing or two about Buckingham palace😜
You can go inside the Palace, but obviously you won't see the Queen!! She normally goes to one of her other homes when they open up Buckingham Palace to the public in summer.
Sounds like you have an idyllic garden, I'm sure many would want to visit if you open it up!!
Wow, the rudeness spoils the experience. They should have put camera prohibited and off-limits signs then. No visitor deserves that kind of treatment.
Thanks for sharing, I now know not to rush to buy a ticket, and well done for buying your picnic from Waitrose, her majesty would appreciate that I'm sure!
Well, interesting the ways to get income from the royal family. I definitely wouldn't have paid $ 5 to go see a lawn and a lake but let's say at least ... it was a nice lawn, very green. nice photos, good post.
That's almost RM100
And cannot do this and that... hmmmmm
Well, thank you for sharing your pics, for that's the trip I have taken :D
But I have to say those pics of the lake - you captured it beautifully
I was scolded once by an obnoxious Englishman too. Most probably he was jealous as he had to work while you got to enjoy a hearty picnic.
Its unfortunate that the experience wasn't that great. I agree that it's basically just a lawn. Calling it a garden is a major stretch. The interactions with the staff members do not sound very nice either. On the plus side, it looks like you got great weather :)
Wow, I understand your annoyance with the attitude of the member of the staff. Unfortunately, that seems to be the rule they have adopted in my country too. However, at least the lake pics are the best of your post. 😝
Beautiful place @livinguktaiwan, too bad they couldn't photograph the inside of the palace, it must be very elegant. They must make an appointment to visit it inside, I imagine they do guided tours inside the palace.
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Wow! £16.50. You could almost say that's daylight robbery!
very beautiful and amazing place