Buckingham Palace

=== Semi-state apartments ===
[[File:Obama and Duke Duchess of Cambridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Prince William]] and his wife [[Catherine, Princess of Wales|Catherine]] greeting [[Barack]] and [[Michelle Obama]] in the 1844 room]]
Directly underneath the state apartments are the less grand semi-state apartments. Opening from the Marble Hall, these rooms are used for less formal entertaining, such as luncheon parties and private [[Head of state|audiences]]. At the centre of this floor is the Bow Room, through which thousands of guests pass annually to the monarch's [[garden parties]].<ref>Harris, p. 40.</ref> When paying a state visit to Britain, foreign [[heads of state]] are usually entertained by the monarch at Buckingham Palace. They are allocated an extensive suite of rooms known as the Belgian Suite, situated at the foot of the Minister's Staircase, on the ground floor of the west-facing Garden Wing. Some of the rooms are named and decorated for particular visitors, such as the 1844 Room, decorated in that year for the state visit of [[Nicholas I of Russia]], and the 1855 Room, in honour of the visit of [[Napoleon III]] of France.<ref>Harris, p. 81.</ref> The former is a sitting room that also serves as an audience room and is often used for personal investitures. Narrow corridors link the rooms of the suite; one of them is given extra height and perspective by [[saucer dome]]s designed by Nash in the style of Soane.<ref name="harrisp82">Harris, p. 82.</ref> A second corridor in the suite has Gothic-influenced [[Vault (architecture)|cross-over vaulting]].<ref name="harrisp82"/> The suite was named after [[Leopold I of Belgium]], uncle of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In 1936, the suite briefly became the private apartments of the palace when [[Edward VIII]] occupied them.<ref name="fact"/> The original early-19th-century interior designs, many of which still survive, included widespread use of brightly coloured [[scagliola]] and blue and pink [[Lapis lazuli|lapis]], on the advice of Charles Long. [[Edward VII]] oversaw a partial redecoration in a [[Belle Époque]] cream and gold colour scheme.<ref name="Jones43">Jones, p. 43.</ref>