Hidden history of royal staff uncovered in Buckingham Palace restoration

Lost or long-discarded items revealing glimpses of the behind-the-scenes life of Buckingham Palace staff over decades have been uncovered during the restoration of the UK monarchy’s HQ.

Misplaced belongings, found beneath the floorboards, in other areas of the royal residence and preserved within the fabric of the building, include a ticket to a whist drive run by the royal household’s social club from nearly 80 years ago.

Blank Littlewoods football pools betting slips from 1957, a pair of battered black hobnail boots and an empty Silk Cut cigarette packet were among the everyday objects unearthed, as well as an almost 140-year-old fragment of the West End theatre listings from the Standard newspaper in 1889.

The discoveries were made during the decade-long £370m reservicing of the palace which has included rewiring electrics, upgrading plumbing and heating and overhauling its infrastructure to prevent long-term damage.

Electrical wire covered with Vulcanised Indian Rubber (VIR) cabling, which posed the risk of fire to the building, were also located. The cabling, which becomes brittle with age, was removed as a priority when the project, which is due to be completed next year, began in 2017. About 1.2 miles (2km) of the rubber cabling has been replaced so far.

The small whist drive ticket, priced at 6d, a sixpence, and dated 14 April 1949 – during the reign of the king’s grandfather, George VI – was found embedded in a lump of building rock.

The pass to the staff social club gathering in the palace reads “Royal Household Social Club – Buckingham Palace: A Whist Drive to be held on” followed by the faded, stamped date “14 APR 1949”.

At that time, Queen Elizabeth II was still Princess Elizabeth and had been married to Prince Philip for less than 18 months and their eldest son, Charles, was only five months old.

Pages from the Daily Express newspaper in 1966 detailed the maximum security prison housing the Great Train Robbers, picturing the inside of Durham prison and reporting that “the men who were found guilty of stealing a fortune in mailbags spend their week stitching them for nine shillings”.

Instructions for royal household staff for the 1977 Silver Jubilee Diplomatic Corps reception informed them that the queen and other members of the royal family would move round the ballroom in a “clockwise direction”.

Aides were to encourage the 350 British guests to mingle with the diplomats at the glittering white tie and tiaras annual gathering, according to the manually typed sheet, which also said that smoking was banned in the certain state rooms and the reception kept to a strict timetable.

Other findings included a section of Minton decorative ceramic tiles from a fireplace hearth, with the design dating from around the mid-1800s, an aged Pewter tankard, a bottle of Schweppes still Malvern English spring water, a wooden junction box and a faded box containing six Christmas cards.