En Passant - Land Grab at the Palace?

This has nothing whatsoever to do with Harringay or even Haringey, but it is about London. Catching up on my non-urgent emails this morning, I came across the work of 19th Century architectural photographer Roger Fenton. Amongst his work was this 1857 photograph of Buckingham Palace.

The first thing the struck me about it was how much smaller was the front courtyard in those days. I think the palace was spruced up int the late 19th/early 20th century. I guess they must have asserted their ancient rights and grabbed a little more land out front whilst the had the decorators in.

It's also interesting to see how different the mid-nineteenth century facade was to the present day one.