Dates and times for Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle

Due to the Covid19, Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle have been cancelled, there is currently no information available as to when it will re-start.

Please note that due to security concerns, the schedules are not normally released until the month prior and can change. Please return to this page to look for regular updates.

 

Checking dates and times before you plan your visit

We know that many of you are planning well in advance and are looking to plan your visit to London and to see Changing the Guard so as a guide and based on our past experience this is a provisional idea of when the guard change at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle is likely to take place.

However it is really important to double check this, unfortunately we wont always know until late on but activities such as major Sporting Events, State Visits and Trooping the Colour are all events that can affect the ceremony.

Events in 2020 that are likely to mean the ceremony at Buckingham Palace would not go ahead are:

The State visit from Japan, at this point it is scheduled for the Spring of this year with no further details other than the fact that Her Majesty will welcome the Emperor and Empress of Japan at Windsor Castle - further details to be announced.

The London Marathon on Sunday 26th April as the course passes Buckingham Palace and runs up The Mall.

Trooping the Colour, perhaps the largest and most important ceremonial event in the military Calendar, it is likely to affect ceremonies at Buckingham Palace on Saturday 30th May, Saturday 6th June and Saturday 13th June 2020.

We recommend you try to plan two days that are easily 'interchangeable' so that if there is an adjustment to the schedule you can more easily make last minute changes!

However purely as a general guide we expect the following schedules:

 

Buckingham Palace

March and April every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

May, June and July - daily

August onwards every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

 

Windsor Castle

March and April every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

May, June and July - daily

August onwards every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

 

Particularly during the winter months the ceremony may be cancelled due to bad weather often at the last minute, we aim to post any last minute changes and updates to the ceremony on our Facebook page.

 

Times:

11.00am Buckingham, Palace

11.00am Windsor Castle

During the summer months the ceremony is very popular and we therefore recommend arriving early

The ceremonies finish at 12 noon.