Our esteemed editor, Mr. Wapojif, turns 41 in late November. He lived in London for two years around the 2006 mark. Not once did he ever visit Buckingham Palace (or plan on visiting the place).

We’re not patriotic and London, thriving cultural hub that it is, has far more interesting things to offer than that palace (British icon that it, admittedly, is). BUT! Due to the good old-fashioned failure of English public transport, Mr. Wapojif had no choice but to walk past the bloody thing. These are his thoughts on this magnificent experience.

Buckingham Palace: Smaller Than You’d Think

Sloane Square. That was the tube stop we needed and, any other day of the week, it would’ve taken 30 minutes from Euston train station to reach.

However, as this is England, the tube system had works that weekend and FOUR stops around that one destination (Sloane Square) were blocked off. Confused, Mr. Wapojif alighted at Embankment and wandered around getting more and more confused.

Eventually he realised he’d have to walk to Sloane Square, the destination of his hotel (and Spiritfarer at Cadogan Hall experience thing). That walk took an hour and, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, Google Maps made it quite straightforward.

For the record, if you ever visit England then expect public transport disruption as the norm. After decades of privatisation, the rail system is pretty disastrous. As we found out on Sunday morning when every train we booked was cancelled, leaving us as a last resort stuck on one that took four hours to get to Manchester (instead of the usual two) on a packed to the rafters train with no seats. Lovely jubbly.

But, yes, cut back to Saturday even and our wandering by Buckingham Palace. Our feelings:

• It’s a lot smaller than it looks on TV
• It’s as white as you’d expect it to be
• A big crowd was there to stare at the thing (for whatever reason)
• The whole thing was a bit underwhelming

The Royals are very rich, of course, but this building for us was lacking in any sort of charisma. Basically, not so much a “palace” and more a block of cement with a flag atop of it (oh, the blasphemy). Pretty odd, though, as often the architecture in London is quite staggering.

Cadogan Hall, the venue we visited a couple of hours after Buckingham Palace, was a far more endearing sight for the eyes. And this got us wondering if anyone else has had this problem…

Negative Online Reviews of Buckingham Palace, What What!!

There are 30,000 TripAdvisor reviews for the building. Not all of them are positive. In fact, some 321 are on the 1/5 “Terrible” scale of reviews. In glorious fashion, we’re here to round up some selected negativity so we can all be bloody miserable about things. The below are all from the last 12 months.

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Exceedingly poor experience all round.

My visit was on 29th July 2025 at 4pm and was a tour of the East Wing and also the State Rooms.

Firstly, may I suggest that, out of respect for both the guides and visitors, people from the offices adjacent to the East Wing corridor (namely the Lord chamberlain) do not conduct loud conversations in the corridor while the guide is trying to address the visitors; it’s plain rude and displays arrogance. Apart from this the tour of the East Wing was interesting, informative and it felt like a special visitor experience.

The Sate Rooms was deep disappointment. I couldn’t believe the mess that was the Palace route. When I entered through the Grand Hall(?) I was barked at by a man to go this way and not that; there was no actual guidance as to where I should go and so I bristled at this. A lady, obviously realising her colleague’s rude manner, came to my assistance.
Quite frankly the building works going on inside the Palace ruined the experience and I would suggest if they continue on into next year then you consider not opening to the public at all.

All except a handful of staff were disinterested and lacked knowledge of the Palace; this was demonstrated to me when I asked a question. I am familiar with the State Rooms and one of my favourite objects in the collection is the marble statue of Mrs Jordon, William 4’s mistress. It was in an upper room – I can’t remember the name- and seems to have gone. I asked two different wardens on duty in the rooms if they knew where it was; they didn’t know what I was talking about and seemed unwilling to engage. The audio guide makes vegetables of us all, I guess.

All that said, there were some pleasant and professional staff; my guide of the east wing; the shop staff I encountered, and a friendly and helpful young man called Finn Devlin who was happy to engage. These staff are a credit to you, however, I have to regretfully say, most of the staff I encountered on the day were disappointing.
My comments on my visit are made more with sadness than anger. I would be interest and, appreciate, your comments on my feedback.

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Very poor value

The cues were dreadful and if I knew what I knew now I wouldn’t have attended even if it was free. £75 for two before you bought a brochure was ‘high end’. When you consider you only say about 12 rooms and just lots of paintings I am cross with myself for venturing in. You went into the excursion through a created entrance at the side of the building and there were no pleasantries whatsoever! Didn’t even see a painting or photo of the young generation of royals! There was a painting of the horrid Camila that sealed the experience.
Windsor castle was a much better experience as may other state homes we have visited

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A crap art gallery and treated like rubbish

Disappointing. Herded through the public areas of the palace with hordes of other tourists like cattle, which is little more than a dusty old art gallery with only a few works of note. All over in 30 minutes, ending in a sprawling gift shop with the clear intention of fleecing tourists out of as much cash as possible.

Toward the end of the “tour”, one of the members of staff (tall male) elbowed me in the arm on his way past. Arguably accidental, but almost certainly deliberate as he seemed to make a point of doing it. Either way, it was disgraceful behaviour. Palace is fortunate I decided not to take it further.

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Royally Rumbled

Well…what an overcrowded, overpriced, shambles of a tourist attraction. The only redeeming positives from our trip yesterday is that the staff were wonderful, I get to say I’ve been to Buckingham Palace and we spent so little time there (55 minutes) that we made it home at a decent time. Everything else was awful. Massively overcrowded, way too expensive for what it was offering, audio guides were short and frankly boring, some inside areas completely bland and bare, garden was forgettable, the one-way system felt as if we were in an IKEA and the toilets were only at the end. We mooed halfway round as we were being treated like cattle.

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Buckingham

It was so disgusting here i got spitted on by everyone around and someone took my wallet, even the guards didnt do anything.

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ABSOLUTE CRAP

horse poo everywhere i stepped in it as i twisted my ankle after. tried taking picture with the guards and got bitten by those stupid horses because they are not trained properly.

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Only go on the tour with a strong bladder.

We were told by our coach host there was a toilet at the start of the tour.
There is not and none till you get to the gardens.
I asked more than once for toilets .
It is a long tour.
I have a strong bladder but even I was worried as I had orange juice and cups of tea for breakfast. As you do.

Also they are so rude to you.
Saying I must remove my small backpack from my back and put it over my arm. Despite plenty of people with it on their back .
Some people’s backpacks are heavy, that’s why it’s on their backs .
I was not told nicely and politely either.
I was told can you take that backpack off your back!!!!
I said why!!!!

Get more toilets Buckingham palace .
It’s a necessity.
And be more polite to paying visitors .