Next year, exciting opportunities to explore the official residences of His Majesty The King will include an expanded programme of East Wing tours at Buckingham Palace, exclusive tours of St James’s Palace, and a new scheme of £1 tickets at Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, available to those receiving Universal Credit and other named benefits. 

Selected tickets are on sale from tomorrow (Tuesday, 5 November), and Royal Collection Trust e-newsletter subscribers will be the first to hear of further launches throughout the year.

Buckingham Palace

The Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace will take place from 10 July to 28 September 2025. This follows a record-breaking year in 2024, when Buckingham Palace welcomed the most visitors in the history of its summer opening.

Visitors will see the opulent State Rooms used by members of the Royal Family for official entertaining, including the White Drawing Room, Throne Room and Ballroom. A visit to the State Rooms can be combined with a Garden Highlights Tour, which takes in areas of the Palace Garden including the Herbaceous Border, Summer House, Rose Garden and Waterloo Vase. Tickets on sale 5 November 2024. 

The East Wing at Buckingham Palace encompasses the building’s iconic front façade and features the famous central balcony. In 2024, the East Wing opened to the public for the first time in its 175-year history, with almost 6,000 people combining their visit to the State Rooms with an East Wing Highlights Tour over the summer months.

Following the success of this trial, which was extremely well received by visitors, the East Wing will open to the public again in 2025 with an expanded programme of tours. Led by expert guides, all tours will see groups of up to 20 people exploring rooms on the East Wing’s Principal Floor, which contain examples of the finest Chinese and Japanese porcelain, 19th-century furniture and paintings in the Royal Collection. 

For the first time, visitors joining East Wing tours will have the special experience of entering through the Palace’s front gates and across the famous Forecourt, just as guests do for official royal events. Visitors will then tour the Centre Room, from which they will have a view of the balcony and the Victoria Memorial; the Yellow Drawing Room, with its towering Chinese porcelain pagodas; and the 240-foot-long Principal Corridor, featuring paintings by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Franz Xaver Winterhalter.

There will be two ways to enjoy a visit to the East Wing in 2025:

East Wing Guided Tours – Mid-January to late May

These brand-new 90-minute tours, which do not include a visit to the State Rooms, are designed to give visitors a more in-depth look at the history of the East Wing and a chance to appreciate up-close the detail and craftsmanship of the works of art on display, at a time when the Palace is not usually open to the public. Further details and on-sale date to be announced via Royal Collection Trust’s e-newsletter in due course.

East Wing Highlights Tours – July to August as part of the Summer Opening

Visitors to the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace will once again be able to add a Highlights Tour of the East Wing to their standard State Rooms visit. For 2025, these tours will be extended from 45 minutes to 60 minutes and will include the newly restored Chinese Dining Room. Originally known as the Pavilion Breakfast Room, the Chinese Dining Room was created for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children to enjoy breakfast together. Like other rooms on the Principal Corridor, it is decorated with Chinese- and Japanese-inspired furniture and works of art moved from George IV’s Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which was sold to finance the East Wing’s creation. Tickets on sale 5 November 2024.

St James’s Palace