Buckingham Palace is not only the London residence and administrative headquarters of the British monarchy but it's also where the Queen holds many state occasions and where she traditionally extends royal hospitality to VIPs and foreign guests. An international landmark,  the palace has also been at the centre of national celebrations  – and mourning  –  for the British people. From Princess Diana's funeral to the London Olympics, crowds will gather along The Mall, a road which runs from the palace to Trafalgar Square in central London.

The Queen is usually ensconced in the palace during weekdays, when she conducts official business, from investitures, state banquets (pictured) and garden parties, to meeting and greeting dignitaries – the palace normally welcomes more than 50,000 VIP guests a year and opens to the public during the summer. However, this year she left Buckingham Palace on 19th March for Windsor Castle to self-isolate from the current pandemic with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and a small number of staff.

The Queen has a nine-room private apartment but isn't said to be especially fond of the suite; it is her place of work after all. According to royal author Penny Junor's book The Firm, she wanted to reside in nearby Clarence House but was persuaded to move into Buckingham Palace by Sir Winston Churchill.

In contrast, Windsor Castle is thought to be the Queen's favourite official home. The 1,000-room castle, which is located in Windsor Great Park, just west of London, dates from the 11th century and sprawls over 484,000 square feet.

The Queen chose the White Drawing Room as the setting to address the nation at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in April 2020. The moving speech, which evoked the wartime adage 'we'll meet again', was filmed with only one socially distanced camera operator at Windsor Castle. The White Drawing Room is filled with meaningful family heirlooms, including an ornate 18th-century cabinet and a carpet that survived the fire of 1992.

The fairytale castle is famed for its magnificent state apartments, considered by many experts to represent some of the finest examples of Georgian style. The gilded rooms are decorated with priceless antiques and paintings by Rubens and Holbein.

The private apartments at Windsor are hardly ever photographed. This rare glimpse inside the Queen's private sitting room, which shows Her Majesty meeting the former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in 2015, was shared via the British Monarchy's official Twitter account.

Like Buckingham Palace, maintaining Windsor Castle is a costly process. The infamous 1992 fire that ripped through the building caused £36.5 million ($48m) worth of damage – it took 250 firefighters 15 hours to tackle the devastating blaze.

In more recent years, one of the biggest occasions marked at Windsor Castle was the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on 19 May 2018. Watched by the world, the couple exchanged vows in front of 600 guests at St George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle. 

Windsor is a very special place for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as it was also the setting for their engagement photoshoot and wedding reception. Taken in the grounds of Windsor's Frogmore House in December 2017, this engagement photo shows the happy couple relaxed and smiling. They later relocated to Nottingham Cottage within the grounds of Kensington Palace for the birth of baby Archie. The young family are currently living in Los Angeles, not far from Meghan's mother Doria, after stepping down as senior royals at the end of March 2020.

But Meghan and Harry aren't the only royals to tie the knot in Windsor. On 17 July 2020, Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mozzi were married in a small private ceremony at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at the Royal Lodge in Windsor. Just three miles from Windsor Castle, the Royal Lodge has been the official residence of the Duke of York since 2004, following the Queen Mother's passing two years' earlier.

The Grade II-listed house is where Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie spent much of their childhoods. A wooden swing engraved with Eugenie's name still sits in the garden to this day. The lodge is where Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, isolated together in the initial coronavirus lockdown. 

Holyroodhouse dates way back to 1128 when it was founded as a monastery. It was converted into a palace by King James IV of Scotland in the early 16th century and further additions were made by his successor, King James V of Scotland, as well as later kings and queens.

Staying in bonnie Scotland, Balmoral Castle is the Queen's Highlands vacation home. Unlike Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse, which are owned by the Crown Estate, it is the personal property of the Queen. Balmoral has been a royal residence since 1852 when it was acquired by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria.

While many people would imagine the Queen to surround herself with luxury, Balmoral is pretty frugal – as far as castles go – and is rumoured to be more than a little draughty in the winter months. However, the estate certainly isn't stuck in the Dark Ages – this year, plans for a new hydroelectric turbine were given the go-ahead, building on the existing hydro scheme established in 2014. The eco-technology will help power the vast property, with surplus electricity sold back to the grid. 

Birkhall is part of the Balmoral Estate and is one of several properties that belong to Prince Charles. Since inheriting it from the Queen Mother after her death in 2002, he enjoys spending summers at the residence with the Duchess of Cornwall. The couple spent their honeymoon there in 2005 and it's also where Prince Charles recovered from coronavirus earlier this year.

Here, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles are being presented with a first edition of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography by the author William Shawcross in the garden of Birkhall. The late Queen Mother loved Birkhall and when visiting she would indulge in her love of salmon fishing, often while wearing tartan and tweed. Over the years, the famously green-fingered Prince Charles has made a passion project of restoring the beautiful gardens to their former glory, though they were sadly devastated by flooding in 2016. 

Prince Charles and Camilla regularly welcome guests from around the world to their London home. Before the Prince moved into the property, it underwent an extensive revamp with everything from colour schemes to upholstery overhauled. Most meetings take place in the formal living room with its blue-toned furniture, fringed lamps and historic artwork. Here, Prince Charles can be seen hosting King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands at Clarence House in October 2018.

Highgrove House in Gloucestershire has been one of Prince Charles’ private residences since 1980. He moved into the estate with Princess Diana after they were married in 1981 and Princes Harry and William spent many of their formative years there. In 1987, Charles remodelled the Georgian house, which is managed and owned by The Duchy of Cornwall. 

As the Prince of Wales, it’s apt that Prince Charles has a residence in the land of his title's namesake. The Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall normally make an annual summer visit to Llwynywermod, their restored farmhouse in Myddfai, a small village in the county of Carmarthenshire. 

Like Balmoral, Sandringham House in Norfolk is one of the Queen's private homes. Her Majesty spends Christmas at Sandringham and stays until February. It is from here that she has recorded many of her famous annual messages to the nation. However, it's unclear if the Queen and Prince Phillip's plans will be the same this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. 

As well as the main house, the spacious estate includes several well-appointed houses. The Georgian Anmer Hall, for instance, is the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, after it was given to them by the Queen as a wedding gift. 

Hillsborough was built in the late 18th century by Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire and was remodelled in the 19th and early 20th centuries. More stately home than castle, the two-storey Georgian mansion is set in 100 acres of rolling grounds.

Kensington Palace has been a royal residence since the 17th century. Today, the iconic palace is home to the apartments and offices of members of the royal family, while historic areas of the estate are usually open to the general public, though this year there have been closures due to the pandemic.

Set in around 60 acres of manicured grounds, the palace boasts some of the most well-kept gardens in London. One of the most popular spots is the Sunken Garden, which is where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle posed for their official engagement photos. It dates back to 1908 and features an ornamental pond, fountains and terraced flowerbeds.

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