There is a lift to the first floor near the exit to the East Front Garden to the east of the palace. Please ask a State Apartment Warder for directions. A warder accompanies all visitors using the lift.

Distance from the West Gate (main entrance) to lift: 160 metres

Distance from the lift to the Great Hall: 110 metres

Total distance travelled on the first floor following this route: 740 metres

Henry VIII’s Apartments

A warder will guide you from the lift - which brings you into Mary II's Apartments, currently closed for the installation of 'Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber' exhibition - to the Great Hall and the start of Henry VIII’s Apartments. After visiting the Horn Room, Great Watching Chamber, Pages’ Chamber, Council Chamber, Royal Pew (for Henry's Crown) and Haunted Gallery you will be at the top of the Queen’s Staircase. From here, a warder will lead you through two doors to the Georgian Private Apartments.

Georgian Private Apartments

You will be directed to the right to the Cumberland Suite, which is the start of the route. If the connecting passage between the rooms is too narrow for your wheelchair please ask a member of staff to show you the alternative route nearby. The route continues past a little room called the Wolsey Closet, which only has one entrance and exit, and into the Communication Gallery. Here, you can also visit the King’s Apartments – please ask a warder. To complete the Georgian Private Apartments, go round the corner to the Cartoon Gallery. Please back track to the door you entered by ... or go through to the first floor of William III's Apartments.

William III’s Apartments – first floor and ground floor

You enter the William III's Apartments on the first floor in the King’s Eating Room. Turn right for the start of this route – the King’s Staircase landing. Once you have visited all the rooms on the first floor go back to the Eating Room where a warder will let you back into the Georgian Private Apartments.

Make your way back to the lift and down to the ground floor. Head towards William III's Apartments and enter the ground floor via the colonnade in Clock Court. Pass through the doors, turn to your right into Stone Passageway and enter the King’s Private Apartments through the door on the left. You will enter in the final room so please go through all the rooms to get to the start.

The Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber exhibition (27 March - 3 November 2013)

This new exhibition is in Mary II's Apartments and includes the Private Apartments of Queen Caroline (which were part of the Georgian Private Apartments) and the Prince of Wales' Suite, which hasn't been open to the public for decades.

The lift brings you into the middle of the exhibition so make your way to the first room, the 'spectacle of the bedchamber'. From there, follow the exhibition round until you get to the final room (the Queen's Oratory) from where the warders will direct you back to the lift.

Young Henry VIII exhibition (Wolsey Rooms)

Access is from the King’s Guard Chamber. There are four steps at the entrance – three steps, a metre-long landing and a further very narrow single step. Ask the warder in the King’s Guard Chamber if you would like to visit the Wolsey Rooms and the Young Henry VIII exhibition. You will enter in the final room of the exhibition so please go to the start. The exit is also via the King’s Guard Chamber.

For visitors unable to manage these four steps, there is a virtual tour of the Young Henry VIII exhibition in the Information Centre off Base Court. 

Tudor Kitchens

There are ramps throughout the Tudor Kitchens but you can only visit the Wine Cellar via a staircase. Visitors could go to the Information Centre, exit via the back into the shop and through there into the Wine Cellar but there are still some steps. The Wine Cellar can be viewed from the North Cloister corridor.

In the Boiling House there are some door frames of less than a metre wide leading into Fish Court. Visitors may find it easier to backtrack after going round the Boiling House and head towards the North Cloister. The door on the left labelled PRIVATE (at the end of a short passage) leads into Fish Court.

The Chapel Royal, Mantegna’s Triumphs of Caesar exhibition, the Story of the Palace exhibition, the Gardens Exhibition and the Great Vine viewing area.

All these are on the ground floor and have flat access so should not present problems for visitors with mobility difficulties.

The Little Banqueting House and the Royal Tennis Court

Both of these have steps at the entrance.

The Little Banqueting House is often used for functions and/or civil wedding ceremonies so is rarely open to visitors but as it is raised above the garden level the steps are steep and too short for ramps.

There is a gentle slope and then an uneven step at the entrance to the Royal Tennis Court. The viewing area is only open to visitors April to September; it is a private members' club so the spectators area is not open to visitors during the winter months.