Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993                   TAG: 9308070073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

IN LINE TO THRONE: QUEEN'S PALACE OPENS TO PUBLIC

Temporary toilets - branded an eyesore by city planners - were positioned in the park outside and workmen finished varnishing and vacuuming.

Buckingham Palace opens to tourists for the first time today, giving the common folk an inside look at the grandest working royal residence in the world.

During the eight weeks the queen and her family are on holiday, about 400,000 people are expected to troop through the palace, making it one of Britain's most popular tourist attractions.

For $12, visitors can wander 18 rooms and halls, drink in some of finest examples of 19th century architecture and decor and gawk at a treasure-trove of Old Masters, marble sculptures, tapestries, porcelain and antique furniture.

But the only hint that anyone lives there now was the fact that the cushions on the thrones in the Throne Room were still squashed from being sat on, as were those on the chairs in the Music Room, scene of many royal christenings.