The King opens room behind famous Buckingham Palace balcony to the public

The room behind Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony will open to the public next week, giving a glimpse of George IV’s love of oriental art and furniture.

The King was instrumental in allowing visitors into the royal residence’s east wing for the first time and almost 6,000 tickets were sold out within hours of going on sale in April.

The room is known, among other things, for the setting of Paddington Bear’s meeting with the late Quen during the Jubilee celebrations.

Caroline de Guitaut, Surveyor of the King’s Works of Art, said: “It was Prince Albert’s idea to have a balcony at Buckingham Palace, because he saw it as a way of enabling the royal family to connect with the people, and of course that’s exactly how, in a sense, it continues to be used on important occasions.”

She added: “But it began to be used very early on in Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1851 waving off the troops to the Crimean War and welcoming them back on return.”

The palace’s east wing was built between 1847-49 to accommodate Queen Victoria’s growing family, and the development enclosed the former open horse-shoe shaped royal residence.

George IV’s opulent oriental-style seaside palace, the royal pavilion in Brighton, was sold to finance the building work and its contents, some of the finest ceramics and furniture in the Royal Collection, were moved to the east wing and inspired the Chinese-themed decor of its principal rooms.

They were carried from Brighton in 143 shipments on artillery carts, and although some items were loaned back to the pavilion, major items, like 42 fireplaces, were incorporated into Buckingham Palace along with tables, chairs, clocks and vases.

Guided tours of the east wing, which also include the palace’s state rooms, will take visitors along much of the 240ft-long principal corridor, and include the yellow drawing room and centre room behind the balcony.

The yellow drawing room features an oriental-style fireplace from George’s seaside pleasure palace, an elaborate gilded curtain rail and even some of the pavilion’s wallpaper that was discovered in storage by Queen Mary and hung at her request.