How to get tickets to visit buckingham palace garden - and the activities on offer

The Buckingham Palace garden is opening to the public for picnics and self-guided tours for the first time on Friday. Such has been the demand for tickets that additional places have been

made available on dates throughout July to September. WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE ON OFFER? Tourists will be able to picnic on the sweeping lawns and explore the garden themselves. The route

encompasses the 156-metre Herbaceous Border, the Horse Chestnut Avenue, plane trees planted by and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and views of the island and its beehives

across the 3.5-acre lake. Members of the public, who must pre-book, can also pre-arrange to join guided tours around the south west of the garden including the Rose Garden, summer house and

wildflower meadow. Daily talks by visitor services wardens and trails for families are included as part of the general visit. Art and craft activities will be available for those with

children on Mondays in July and August, from July 19, and as part of two Family Festival days on August 26 and 30, with warden-led family tours. ‘AN OASIS IN THE CENTRE OF LONDON’ Adam, 25,

a visitor services warden for the Royal Collection, said of the garden opening: “It’s an offer that we’ve never offered before. “It’s an exciting prospect to allow people to come in and

picnic in the gardens and explore to their own leisure. “We’re sort of in an oasis within the centre of London so not many people realise it’s here or how big it is either. It’s the largest

private garden in London, so I feel like we’ve got lots of secrets to tell people.” He said of the Queen, who receives a seasonal posy made from the garden’s blooms each week when she is in

residence: “She definitely likes to be involved with everything that’s going on.” Sally Goodsir, the Royal Collection’s curator of decorative arts, said: “We sadly haven’t been able to open

the state rooms this year because of the current situation as we might ordinarily have done and therefore it’s wonderful to be able to open the garden instead.” PALACE WOULD HAVE

TRADITIONALLY HELD GARDEN PARTIES Traditionally, the Queen would host 8,000 guests at a time at three Garden Parties a year at the Palace, but this year’s and last were also unable to go

ahead. The current landscape of the historic 39-acre garden dates back to the 1820s when George IV turned Buckingham House into a palace. Despite its urban location, the garden is home to

rare native plants seldom seen in London, more than 1,000 trees, 320 different wildflowers and grasses, and the National Collection of Mulberry Trees. Its Rose Garden contains 25 beds of

roses, and each bed is planted with 60 rose bushes of a different variety, and no two adjacent beds are of a similar colour. Since 2008 the island in the lake has been home to five beehives,

which produce around 160 jars of honey a year for use in the royal kitchens. Some of the garden’s botanicals including lemon verbena, hawthorn berries, bay leaves and mulberry leaves are

used to make Buckingham Palace Gin, which is sold by the RCT. Additionally, the traditional summer opening of the Palace’s state rooms and themed exhibition, which normally welcomes

thousands, was cancelled for a second year due to the pandemic. HOW TO GET TICKETS? The Garden at Buckingham Palace will open five days a week (except Tuesdays and Wednesdays) from July 9 to

September 19 2021. Tickets are priced at £16.50 for adults and should be pre-booked at www.rct.uk or +44 (0)303 123 7300. Garden Highlights Guided Tours should be booked with the main

ticket and are priced at £6.50 for adults. _Additional reporting by PA_ Continue Reading