British Royal family may skip Trooping the Colour balcony appearance next year

The British Royal family might forgo tradition next year. Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the family will likely not appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for Trooping the Colour in June 2019 because the palace will be off limits at that time.

In 2016, the UK government had approved a £369 million (AU$657 million) budget for the restoration of the Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty’s official London residence, over the course of 10 years. The renovation is done by sections, and by April next year, it’s east wing’s turn to be revamped.

The east wing of the palace is where the balcony is located. If the renovation in the Centre Room, which has the access to the balcony, wasn’t completed by June, the royals wouldn’t be able to watch the ceremony from there.

A senior courtier told the Daily Mail that they hoped the renovation would not prevent the royals from accessing the balcony for Trooping the Colour next year. However, he admitted that it was possible that the monarch and her family wouldn’t be able to watch it from there. “It will be assessed. It needs to be safe.”

Another aide said that they expected it would be “very much business as usual.” He added that because the works were internal, there would be no scaffolding on the outside of the palace.

The renovations will also affect the Royal family’s private apartments. It is understood that the Queen and Prince Philip will be moved to other apartments in the palace once the works reached their sections. Precious artworks would have to be removed before the arrival of the workers in April. Some of them would be loaned to galleries and museums around the country and the world, but others would be placed into commercial storage, the paper said.