43 The Queen’s bedroom

Buckingham Palace

LOCATION Westminster, London, England

NEAREST POPULATION HUB London

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: the private chamber of the Queen.

Buckingham Palace is the British Queen’s official London residence, and one of the most iconic buildings in the world. Yet despite attracting hordes of tourists, large swathes of the labyrinthine palace remain under the highest security and off-limits to the world at large. Most private of all is the Queen’s personal bedroom, once the scene of a notorious break-in.

Buckingham Palace was originally plain old Buckingham House, built as the London pad of the Duke of Buckingham in 1705. The location he chose had once been a mulberry garden where King James I had attempted to rear silkworms (unsuccessfully, as he had planted the wrong type of mulberry bush). The house took the fancy of King George III, who purchased it as a residence for his wife, Queen Charlotte. It only became a palace in the 1820s, after spendthrift monarch George IV ordered extensive renovations from the architect, John Nash.

George, though, would never live in it, and so Queen Victoria became the first monarch to take up residence when she moved in during July 1837. After the young queen married Prince Albert in 1840 and started a family, it was soon clear that the palace needed to be extended—a job that fell to the architect Edward Blore and his builder, Thomas Cubitt. Their greatest contribution was the addition of the East Wing, complete with the famous balcony from which the royals wave to their subjects at times of celebration. One such occasion marked the end of the Second World War, during which the Palace had received nine direct hits from German bombers.

Today, the Palace encompasses some 775 rooms, of which 52 are royal and guest bedrooms. When in residence (signified by the raising of the Royal Standard), the Queen and Prince Philip occupy a suite of rooms in the Palace’s North Wing. By rights, this should be the single most impenetrable part of the building. But being such a famous landmark, Buckingham Palace has tempted many to test its security over the years, from naked paragliders to undercover journalists, and from paternal rights campaigners dressed as Batman to Osama bin Laden look-alikes. One man found on the grounds in 1990 even ambitiously claimed to be Prince Andrew and that he was there to visit his “Mum.” But the most serious breach came on July 9, 1982, when the Queen found herself engaged in conversation in her bedroom for a good ten minutes with an intruder named Michael Fagan.

ATTENTION! A member of the Queen’s Guard on sentry duty at Buckingham Palace. The company is also responsible for guarding St. James’s Palace in London. Their famous uniform is recognized around the world, but despite their old-fashioned appearance, these are highly trained armed soldiers.

In fact, this was not Fagan’s first visit to the Palace, since he had successfully scaled the barbed-wire-topped perimeter wall several weeks earlier. On that occasion, on June 7, he had wandered around the palace unhindered, even stopping to enjoy some wine, cheese and biscuits. When he returned in July, he shinned up a drain pipe into the Queen’s private apartments. It was reported that his activities did trigger an alarm, but a palace employee assumed the alarm system was faulty. The armed police officer who should have been on guard outside her room was apparently out walking the dogs, and his replacement had not yet got to his position.

The first the Queen knew of a strange man in her bedroom was when she noticed the curtains twitch. Showing admirable calm, she proceeded to chat amicably with him as he walked across her chamber and perched on the end of her bed. After a while, he requested a cigarette but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Queen did not have a packet to hand, so she requested some be brought in. This provided her with the opportunity to raise the alarm and a footman dutifully appeared on the scene, holding Fagan until the police arrived to arrest him.

Fagan was subsequently charged with civil offenses and spent several months in a high-security mental health facility. It was the first time that an intruder had made it into the private royal apartments since the reign of Queen Victoria (though during the Second World War the Queen Mother had stumbled upon an army deserter in her bathroom).

The incident brought the issue of the Queen’s security under blazing scrutiny, and the level of protection surrounding her became even greater. As well as armed guards throughout the Palace—presumably now issued with clear instructions on when they can take the corgis out—there are regular police dog patrols and a permanent detachment from the Queen’s Guard, instantly recognizable in their red tunics and bearskins. In 2004, Scotland Yard took over responsibility for security at royal sites from the security services. The same year, an electric fence was erected around the Palace, administering a shock strong enough to disable an intruder until they are apprehended.