Queen Victoria was the first English Royal to Live in Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace was commissioned by King George IV in the late 1700s, though its history goes much further back. As far back, in fact, as the Middle Ages, when the site formed part of the Manor of Ebury.

Queen Victoria was the first sovereign to use Buckingham Palace as her official royal residence, moving in shortly after her accession in 1837. Before her arrival, the building was known as Buckingham House and had been a private townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham before being purchased by King George III in 1761 for his wife, Queen Charlotte. While George IV and William IV both oversaw massive renovations to turn it into a palace, neither lived there; George IV died before it was finished, and William IV preferred Clarence House. Queen Victoria’s move marked the transition of the palace from a grand construction project to the working headquarters of the British Monarchy. Her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 further solidified the palace as a family home, leading to the addition of the famous East Front and the "balcony" that remains the site of royal public appearances for the British Royal Family in 2026.