Buckingham Palace hunting for consultants on £369m revamp

Buckingham Palace has begun the search for consultants to work on the scheme to revamp the Queen’s London home starting this spring.

An independent report last summer said the 300 year old Buckingham Palace and the historic items it houses were at risk if repair work did not begin soon.

Building understands that invitations to tender are expected to be issued to consultants in the next couple of weeks.

In November, the government announced the palace would undergo a ten year restoration programme costing £369m of taxpayers’ cash.

The Queen will remain in residence during the works, which includes essential repairs and the replacement of miles of ageing cables, lead pipes, electrical wiring and boilers. Work will also include improving public access and visitor facilities.

It will be paid for by a temporary increase in the amount of income the Royal Family gets from the Crown Estate.

The most urgent work is expected to take two years and will focus on replacing key services in the basement including electrical and heating generation and distribution.

Detailed design work for the whole programme will run in parallel with these works and from April 2019 will be undertaken on a wing-by-wing basis, beginning with the East Wing, which faces the Mall.

Last year’s report recommending remedial work be carried out was produced by a team which included engineer WSP, consultant Gleeds, architect HOK and contractor Sir Robert McAlpine.

Major events such as the garden parties, investitures, Trooping the Colour, State Visits, Changing of the Guard and the Buckingham Palace Summer Opening will continue as normal during the works.