Books in Palaces

On Friday before leaving London, I was able to visit the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, The Queen's Art Gallery, and the Royal Mews. Upon my visit to the art gallery, I saw several books that were on display from the library at Buckingham Palace. This sparked my curiosity into the library at Buckingham Palace. During my tour of the state rooms, I did not see a library so I decided to ask an individual who worked there a few questions. I was able to find out that there is a large library located inside of the Palace however it is not included in a tourist area.

Not only are books collected, but music is also a large part of the library. Manuscripts and books from composers and other musical artists are collected and stored inside of the Palace. According to the Royal Palace website, there are over 125,000 books and manuscripts in the collection. Most of the books have been given to the British Library, but a small amount are still housed inside of Buckingham Palace today.

When I was thinking about this topic I remembered that on my trip to Paris I visited the Palace of Versailles, where on the tour, we are taken through what used to be the library of the Palace. There are still some books on the shelves in there today, but I am not sure if those are originals to the collection or where the collection is today.