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

Following successful trials in 2022 and 2023, Exclusive Guided Tours of St James’s Palace will be available on selected weekends in spring 2025. From its origins as a residence for Henry VIII to its status today as the official seat of the British monarchy, St James’s Palace is steeped in 500 years of fascinating royal history. 

Highlights of the tour include views of the Palace’s surviving Tudor architecture, such as its courtyard and gatehouse; paintings, furniture and decorative arts from the Royal Collection, including Mortlake tapestries acquired by Charles I; and the Throne Room and Picture Gallery, where the Accession Council of King Charles III was held on 10 September 2022. Tours also include a view of the Chapel Royal, where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were married, and where more recently the christenings of Their Royal Highnesses Prince George and Prince Louis took place. Further details and on-sale date to be announced via Royal Collection Trust’s e-newsletter in due course.

Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse

Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse are open to the public year-round. In 2025, a new scheme of £1 tickets, available to those receiving Universal Credit and other named benefits, will be launched at both royal residences, initially available between 1 January and 4 April. Those eligible can bring up to five members of their household along with them to explore the Castle or the Palace for £1 each. The scheme is part of Royal Collection Trust’s charitable aim to find welcoming and inclusive ways for everyone to enjoy the Palaces and the Collection. It was first launched in 2024 at The King’s Galleries in London and Edinburgh, which will continue to offer £1 tickets for exhibitions in 2025. Tickets on sale 5 November 2024.

In addition to £1 tickets, a range of concessionary rates will continue to be available. These include half-price entry for children and discounts for young people, while visitors who purchase standard tickets directly from Royal Collection Trust can convert them into a 1-Year Pass, allowing free re-entry for 12 months.

Ends

Listings information

The Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace – on sale 5 November 2024

10 July to 28 September 2025, open seven days a week in July and August and five days a week (Thursday to Monday) in September.

Tickets: £32 per adult in advance, £35 per adult on the day. Concessions available. 

Garden Highlights Tours cost an additional £15 per adult and must be booked in conjunction with a State Rooms ticket.

East Wing Guided Tours – further details and on-sale date to be announced in due course

Mid-January to late May 2025. 

Tickets: £90.

East Wing Highlights Tours – on sale 5 November 2024

12 July to 31 August 2025, available daily. 

Must be booked in conjunction with a State Rooms ticket.

Tickets: £90 per adult. Concessions available. Cost includes a 60-minute guided tour of the East Wing as well as access to the full State Rooms visitor route and a State Rooms multimedia guide, available in nine languages.

St James’s Palace Exclusive Guided Tours – further details and on-sale date to be announced in due course

Spring 2025. 

£1 tickets to Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse – on sale 5 November 2024

Available between 1 January and 4 April 2025, for those receiving Universal Credit and other named benefits. 

A selection of images is available to download via Dropbox.

For further information and images, please contact the Royal Collection Trust Press Office, +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected].

Tickets and visitor information can be found at www.rct.uk or by telephone: 

Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace: +44 (0)303 123 7300

Windsor Castle: +44 (0)303 123 7304

Palace of Holyroodhouse: +44 (0)303 123 7306

Instagram:@royalcollectiontrust Facebook: @royalcollectiontrust X:@RCT 

Notes to Editors

Royal Collection Trust is a charity caring for the Royal Collection and welcoming visitors to the royal palaces. We bring our shared history to life through world-class experiences that involve and inspire people, wherever they are. Income from tickets and retail sales helps us to conserve the Collection so that it can be enjoyed by everyone for generations to come. 

The Royal Collection is one of the world’s great art collections, held in trust by The King for his successors and the nation. With over a million objects, from paintings, drawings and books to sculpture, furniture and jewellery, it is a unique record of the tastes of British kings and queens over the past 500 years, with many items still used today for their original purpose. The Collection can be seen in palaces, museums and galleries across the UK and around the world, and can be explored online at www.rct.uk. 

Access to the East Wing has been made possible due to the conclusion of more than five years of improvement works as part of the Buckingham Palace Reservicing Programme. The Reservicing Programme aims to upgrade the historic building’s infrastructure, improve access and preserve it for future generations. Find out more here.