By the late 1840s, Victoria and Albert had decided to transform the front of Buckingham Palace. And to make space, they dismantled the marble triumphal arch and relegated it to a distant corner of a Royal Park. As the cars and tourists swirl around Marble Arch in their thousands, I doubt many of them realise that this was once the ceremonial entrance to Buckingham Palace, through which Queen Victoria would ride in her splendid horse-drawn carriages. When it was first moved here, it was a suitably regal entrance to Hyde Park. But now, surrounded by multi-lane roads, it's rather forlornly marooned amid the fast-food outlets and the traffic. In place of the arch, Victoria and Albert commissioned architect Edward Blore to build a new wing right across the front of the building. And at its centre was an important new feature, the now-famous balcony.


到了18世纪40年代，女王和亲王做了个决定，改变白金汉宫的前门，为了腾出空间，移除大理石建造的凯旋门，改造成皇家公园的一角。 当车辆和游人流连于大理石拱门的时候，不知道他们是否会意识到这里曾经是白金汉宫的正大门，是维多利亚女王乘坐豪华马车出入的地方。当初移到这里的时候，就成了到海德公园最佳的出入口。但是现在被熙攘的马路包围，成了一个孤岛，湮没于快餐店和交通之中。 为了填补拱门的空缺，维多利亚和阿尔伯特命令建筑师爱德华·布罗在宫殿的前方新建一个侧厅。在中心位置，是一个重要的新景观——一个有名的阳台。