Fans of the royal family will finally see the room where Charles III was proclaimed monarch, as St James’s Palace is opening to the public for the first time. Tickets costing a whopping £85 each are set to go on sale this week, allowing small guided groups to tour the historical location between April and May 2025.
![[Proclamation Of King Charles III]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2022/09/10/11/newFile-9.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
According to the Royal Collection Trust, which is facilitating the tours, the sky-high prices “reflect the unique and special access visitors will experience". Although London isn’t short of royal locations and historical sites to explore, the 500-year-old St James’s Palace, located close to Buckingham Palace, has been off-limits to the public until now.
The upcoming tours of the working royal residence will likely give visitors an intimate insight into centuries of royal life, as well as the building’s impressive history. Built by Henry VIII between 1531 and 1536, St James’s Palace bore witness to a number of historical royal events, such as Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert and Elizabeth I assembling her troops against the Spanish Armada.
More recently, both Queen Elizabeth II and our current reigning monarch, King Charles III, were proclaimed at the royal residence in front of the Accession Council. The proclamation was then read out from the balcony of St James’s Palace, essentially confirming the reign of a new monarch.
These days, it also hosts up to 100 charity events a year and sometimes is the setting for state visits. According to the Trust, highlights of St James’s Palace, which will likely feature on the tour include settings like the Chapel Royal, the Grand Staircase and the Throne Room.
It’s understood that tours will last around 1 hour and 30 minutes and will take place at various times throughout the late morning and afternoon between April and May. No set dates or times have been released by the Trust so far. While the tickets are due to be released imminently, the ticket sale hasn’t gone live just yet.
