Prince Charles slammed for ‘plans to turn Buckingham Palace into Madame Tussauds-style tourist attraction’
WHEN Prince Charles is king, he is said to be planning some big changes to Buckingham Palace, the Sun can reveal.
According to a royal source, the future monarch is hoping to turn the royal residence into a public attraction, and some courtiers have expressed their concerns.
PALACE ‘TOO COSTLY TO RUN’
Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of the UK’s sovereigns since 1837 and is also where the Queen’s offices are situated.
A royal source said to Fabulous Digital that Prince Charles is said to find Buckingham Palace “too big, too impersonal, and far too costly to run for what is basically a royal admin centre.”
They added: “He sees its future as being some sort of open space for the public – open all the time not just for the summer.
“Maybe a permanent exhibition of decades of history on the Royal Family.”
Currently the palace is only open to the public during the summer months of August and September, when the Queen is at her Scottish residence, Balmoral.
The 775-room Buckingham Palace, which includes 19 State rooms and 52 royal and guest bedrooms, has been the site of numerous royal and national celebrations, including the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee.
The move to let the public view inside the royal residence was first made in 1993, and the tour includes access to the State Rooms, the White Drawing Room, the Throne Room, the Picture Gallery, the Ballroom, the Grand Staircase and the palace garden.
STAFF ‘NOT HAPPY’ WITH PLANS
But not everyone is happy about the concept of turning the luxurious pad into a full-time attraction, with one sceptical courtier referring to Charles’ plans as “Royalopolis”.
They sniffed: “Why not just get Madame Tussauds to run the whole place?”
When he turns king, Prince Charles could opt to shun Buckingham Palace as his new home, and stay at Windsor Castle, where the Queen often resides on weekends and feels most “at home”.
He currently lives in Highgrove House in Gloucestershire or in Clarence House when he is in London.
And it’s not the only change Prince Charles is hoped to make when he ascends the throne, according to sources.
He is said to be keen to have a slimmed-down royal family and eventually wants to be independent of taxpayers’ support.
Prince Philip allegedly doesn’t support Prince Charles’ plans to modernise the monarchy – which his father believes are ‘harmful’ and a source says they continue to have a strained relationship with each other.
According to royal author Catherine Mayer, Prince Philip “actively opposed” Prince Charles’ plan for the monarchy because he wants to change the setup.
“The Queen and Philip had very strong ideas about how you do monarchy and Prince Charles comes along and starts doing things very differently,” she wrote.
RISING PROFILE
Prince Charles has just returned from a successful royal tour in New Zealand with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
He was also praised for his two-part documentary on ITV in October, Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall, which offered fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his 30,000-acre land across 23 counties.
On the show he spoke about his love for organic farming and the importance of farmers who have passed down their farms over the generations.
Currently according to YouGov, 46 per cent of people surveyed view Charles positively, with 29 per cent neutral and 23 per cent negative.
We shared how Prince Philip had a ‘strained’ talk with Prince Charles over Prince Andrew.
Jeffrey Epstein ‘sex slave’ Virginia Roberts described sex with Prince Andrew as ‘quick and disgusting’ in a bombshell TV documentary on Monday.
We shared how Prince Charles ‘proves he can run the firm’ by pulling strings in Andrew sacking as the Queen plans to ‘retire’ at 95.