Bucks for Bucks
Buckingham Palace is to be renovated at a cost of £369m, funded through an increase in the sovereign grant. How much have home improvements to the palace cost over the years?
— The original house was built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1706 for £7,000.
— In 1761, George III spent £21,000 to buy it, and £73,000 on remodelling it.
— In 1826, George IV hired John Nash to remodel the building for £450,000. He was fired in 1828, having spent £496,169.
— In 1845, Queen Victoria complained it wasn’t big enough for her growing family and added the east wing, using £53,000 raised by selling Brighton Pavilion.
— In 2010 engineering consultants Atkins estimated the cost of an energy-efficient replica at £320m.
Cool crowd
A court ruled that a girl of 14 who had died from cancer could be cryogenically preserved, in accordance with the wishes of her mother but contrary to the wishes of her estranged father.
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