Prince Andrew — the Queen's second son, and father of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie — hosted an event, Pitch@Palace, in the grand ballroom.
- We were invited to Buckingham Palace in November.
- Prince Andrew — the Queen's second son, and father of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie — was hosting a tech event at its grand ballroom.
- Here's what it was like.
Buckingham Palace, the home Britain's royal family, is a total mystery to most of us.
Only six royals have bedrooms there, and the palace's grand "State Rooms" are almost only used when a member of the family sponsors a big event.
We were recently invited to Pitch@Palace, an event for tech startups and investors hosted by Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son and father of Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.
Here's what it's like to be invited to a party at the Palace.
Buckingham Palace is the home of Queen Elizabeth II, and it's not often people get to go inside.
Security there is particularly tight, and the gates that surround the 40-acre site imposing.
We were invited to an event there in early November.
The letters "KG" after the Duke's name mean he's in the "Order of the Garter," established in 1348 to note people of chivalry.
The motto is: "Shame on him who thinks ill of it."
On the night of the event London police ushered guests through its centre gate into the massive compound.
Behind that famous gate is a large gravel concourse, usually only populated by some Queen's Guards. We got to see some up close later on the night — more on that later.
We walked through an archway — seen in this photo — and entered a second, internal courtyard, which is surrounded by hundreds of windows. The Palace has 760 windows in total.
The Palace has 19 state rooms, which are used exclusively for royal entertaining. Our event was in one of them.
Here’s the main entrance into the Palace’s State Rooms area, which can be accessed at each end of this glass tunnel. The courtyard also serves as the car park.
And if you chose to arrive by other means than foot or car, like the Dutch King and Queen, they'll be able to find you a suitable parking spot too.
Once we were inside the Palace we saw some Queen's Guards, who were posing for photos with their iconic bearskin headwear.
The Queen's Guard and Queen's Life Guard are the group of soldiers charged with guarding official royal residences in London.
They're usually very stern fellows, and extremely professional.
We were taken through the Grand Staircase ...
... which had endlessly long corridors ...
... to enter the Palace's "Picture Gallery." Here we were, naturally, presented with a lot of tea.
The "Picture Gallery" contains some of the most valuable works of art in the world, including Rembrandt's "Agatha Bas."
In fact, as we walked around the room, tea was everywhere.
We were also given bespoke biscuits made for the event to go with the tea.
We were also given fishcakes to nibble on.
The Picture Gallery housed some of art's greatest creations, like this Canaletto.
The Picture Gallery was created by the architect John Nash as part of his transformation of Buckingham House into a palace for George IV from 1825.
Among the artists represented are Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Claude.
There are also sculptures by Canova.
Source: Buckingham Palace
We managed to sneak out to the bathrooms. One of them looked pretty luxurious, with each sink getting their own soap and mirror...
... but another one appeared stuck in the 1950s.
Multiple doors around the room also led into other reception rooms. The lighting and furnishing there is beautiful, like this chandelier in this smaller reception room.
Around the corner was the ballroom — the biggest and most famous state room — where our event was held.
Source: Buckingham Palace