Rewiring Buckingham Palace

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Old news, but new news to me.

It's been well documented how out of date Buckingham Palace is - 70 year+ wiring, plumbing, and even some rooms not redecorated in that sort of time.

I gather work is underway on this now, at a cost of something 370 million quid, apparently.

The old wiring is mostly round metal conduit containing VIR singles, with inspection boxes under the floorboards. Where possible, new PVC singles are being drawn through.

Interestingly enough, under the floorboards old bits of newspaper and cigarette packets can be found, just like any other job.
 
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Are you working on the project then?

Did the Queen get somebody off checkatrade? :ROFLMAO:
 
In my younger days I worked on quite a few high profile PSA buildings but sadly not Buck Palace.

You walk onto these sites & the foul stench of corruption literally smacks you in the face. £350m my arse, it'll over run to at least £500m+ & you could build a city sized hospital for that sort of taxpayers money.
 
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For sure.

Certainly needs doing though, and should have been done 50 years ago.

Around 1980, council houses down my way which were wired in the same way, were all rewired - Buckingham Palace is long overdue.

As expected, they showed a sample of the VIR cable from Buckingham Palace, and it did deteriate under stress, as one would expect.

As we know there's no real problem if left alone - but who knows if someone disturbs it, commonly when changing an accessory.

I'm surprised it was doesn't re-done much sooner, given the various risks, but there you go.

How much money can be made by selling an inch-at-a-time genuine Buckingham Palace cable to the tourists?
 
For sure.

Certainly needs doing though, and should have been done 50 years ago.

Around 1980, council houses down my way which were wired in the same way, were all rewired - Buckingham Palace is long overdue.

As expected, they showed a sample of the VIR cable from Buckingham Palace, and it did deteriate under stress, as one would expect.

As we know there's no real problem if left alone - but who knows if someone disturbs it, commonly when changing an accessory.

I'm surprised it was doesn't re-done much sooner, given the various risks, but there you go.

How much money can be made by selling an inch-at-a-time genuine Buckingham Palace cable to the tourists?

Sell buck palace instead it's not like they're short of a gaff or two.
 
Like Dork Lard I also worked for PSA + even prior to that for MPBW [There is a blast from the distant past]

Costs were generally high, but what cost do you place on such seriously major buildings as Buck House, even trying to get your work force into central London never mind into what is a high security area as this is a total nightmare ??

I also believe that the privatisation of PSA by the Thatcher regime has occasioned the circling of the vultures who smell massive profits in any major building project involving any of the landmark buildings around the country.

Lets think of it like who is going to object that much to a much revered edifice [wherever it it is ] being denuded of its upgrade?

I was once in the situation of a Civil Service "Promotion" and was given the option of working at a well known "Palace" Or another major spend site, i chose the latter and spent some 5 years on the other project [the Palace burned down one year after i went for thee second job??]

Money simply does not mean anything at all at all when you are dealing with one of unique stand alone buildings / structures / even rooms it is a given that in any re-furb / maintenance of such structures simply cannot be quantified by money??

i can recall as a young inexperienced Civil Servant in Edinburgh working on one of the National Portrate Galleries on Princes Street at the bottom of the Mound asking one of the Curators why we were spending several thousands of £££ to make up a timber mock up of what would be the finished article, the cost of what we were doing was to me repulsive.

I was told in no uncertain terms by a trustee of the gallery that even the "cheapest" picture that was to be placed on display was a quantum leap different in the cost of the "paltry" knock up we had undertaken to indicate where the various "masterpieces" were to be displayed

Ken
 
£370m is loose change compared to the cost of refurbing the Houses of Parliament, which I believe are sinking into the Thames.
 
How many such places, that are owned by someone, does the taxpayer finance repairs and refurbishments for after that person, while having billions, has let the property fall into disrepair?
 
Major refurbishment whilst keeping somewhere in use is expensive. John Lewis spent over £100million on Peter Jones at the beginning of this century and that is a much more modern building and is Grade II*, so the restrictions on what can be done are less than they will be on Buckingham Palace.

£350m my arse, it'll over run to at least £500m+

That will be excellent compared to the Scottish Parliament building. Estimated at between £10million and £40million, it came in three years late at £414million.

No doubt we'll be the ones paying for it...
Sell buck palace instead it's not like they're short of a gaff or two.
How many such places, that are owned by someone, does the taxpayer finance repairs and refurbishments for after that person, while having billions, has let the property fall into disrepair?

We meaning the United Kingdom government (and I know that means the taxpayer) will be paying for it as it belongs to us, well sort of.

The king/queen used to own Buckingham Palace (and loads of other lands and rights) personally and had to pay for the upkeep of those properties. However, most of the royal holdings were passed to Crown Estate 250 years ago with the income from this going to the government. In exchange the royal family gets a income that is a lot less than the Crown Estate brings in.

As Buckingham Palace is part of the Crown Estate the Queen does not own it (she cannot sell it) and so is not responsible for maintenance. She has the use of it all the time she is Queen, similarly the PM has the use of 10 Downing street all the time she is PM.

If anyone has let Buckingham Palace fall into disrepair it is successive governments, quite possibly because they did not want to provoke these sort of reactions.
 
We meaning the United Kingdom government (and I know that means the taxpayer) will be paying for it as it belongs to us, well sort of

As it is part of UK heritage, I think it is sensible rather than controversial to refurbish Buckjngham palace, even if it is a bit of an ugly pile.

Nobody is complaining about Big Ben costing £60million to restore -and thats just a clock.
 
As it is part of UK heritage, I think it is sensible rather than controversial to refurbish Buckjngham palace, even if it is a bit of an ugly pile.

Nobody is complaining about Big Ben costing £60million to restore -and thats just a clock.

No it's not, it's a bell... get it right! :D
 
Does anyone really believe that the whole of Buckingham Palace can be completely refurbished for just six times as much as Big Ben(tower)?
 

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