Buckingham Palace and the (re)invention of tradition(s): the flag, the gate, and the balcony

Abstract

At a time when Britain/the United Kingdom is mentally heading towards yet another royal succession, I will be looking briefly at three examples provided in recent decades by Buckingham Palace as the official seat of the British Head of State and thus a space deeply invested with historical, institutional, and symbolic meaning(s); a space where, at different times, and in changing contexts and circumstances, arcane traditions and all their attending rituals and conventions keep on being invented, enacted, and performed.