Explore London

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence and office of the British monarch. Built in 1703 as Buckingham House, it was bought by George III in 1761 and enlarged by John Nash and Edward Blore; Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live here, from 1837. Visitors tour the State Rooms, and the Changing of the Guard takes place in the forecourt.

Apsley House is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. Robert Adam designed it for Lord Apsley in the 1770s, and the 1st Duke of Wellington enlarged it after 1817. Its state rooms show the Wellington Collection, with paintings by Velázquez and Goya and Canova's colossal marble statue of Napoleon.

Kensington Palace is a royal residence in Kensington Gardens, bought by William III and Mary II in 1689 and home to British monarchs until George II. Queen Victoria was born here in 1819. Members of the royal family still live in parts of the palace, while the State Rooms, with paintings from the Royal Collection, are open to visitors through Historic Royal Palaces.

Kenwood House is a stately home on the northern edge of Hampstead Heath. Robert Adam remodelled the late 17th-century house from 1764 for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, adding the library and the Ionic portico. Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, gave it to the nation in 1927 with his paintings by artists such as Rembrandt and Gainsborough.

Eltham Palace in south-east London joins the great hall of a medieval royal palace, built for Edward IV in the 1470s, to an Art Deco house added in the 1930s for Stephen and Virginia Courtauld. English Heritage runs the site, with its 1930s interiors, the hall's hammerbeam roof, a moat crossed by a medieval bridge, and gardens.