There are 20 miles of lead piping and 10 miles of electrical wiring…Here are 10 facts you may not know Buckingham Palace

BUCKINGHAM Palace is set to receive £369m for "urgent repairs" to the estate after the Government confirmed an increase in the Sovereign Grant yesterday - but how much about the palace do you really know?

The refit is described as “essential” and “cost-effective” and will include replacing boilers, miles of cables, pipes and electrical wires.

But did you know that the palace has 20 miles of lead piping, ten miles of electrical wiring and 78 bathrooms?

Here are 10 facts about the palace that you might not have known:

1. The palace was built in 1705 as a town house for the Duke of Buckingham
2. It was known as Buckingham House but was bought by George III for wife Queen Charlotte, when it became known as The Queen’s House
3. If you took out all the lead piping in the palace it would stretch 20 miles. The same goes for the electrical wiring, which would stretch 10 miles
   

   
   

4. After his first break-in when he was just 14-years-old, he was caught by police in nearby St James's Street with a pair of the Queen's underwear stuffed down his trousers!
5. There are 1,514 doors and 760 windows in the palace. The windows are cleaned every six weeks - that is one massive job for the window cleaners
6. When the ballroom of Buckingham Palace was opened in 1856, it was the largest room in London
7. When in town, The Queen holds weekly audiences with the Prime Minister, and every year welcomes more than 50,000 people as guests to state banquets and dinners.
   

The government agreed yesterday to wave through a rise in the grant, currently at 15 per cent, for the 10-year repair job, which will begin next April if approved by MPs.

But it has brought on a wave of campaigners calling for the monarchy to be abolished.

The work will begin next April, if it is approved by MPs.

When the work is complete in 2027, the Sovereign Grant will be reduced back down to its current level of 15%, a review by the Royal Trustees – Prime Minister Theresa May, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Alan Reid – recommended.