Buckingham Palace never sleeps. It is open 24/7 and the side door, where all staff enter and exit, is never closed.
It is through that door that a milk float arrives at 3am, direct from the Royal Dairy in Windsor, where the bottle numbers were changed to K111R from the time Queen Elizabeth II died.
After the milkman comes a parade of merchants with fruits, vegetables, meat and a variety of other items needed for both the royal and household tables.
A special Royal Mail van arrives with the daily mail (up to 5,000 items at a time) so that private secretaries, who usually arrive before 7am, can review each letter and choose which ones to place before Her Majesty when she sits down. his desk. at 9.30.
Six hundred meals are cooked every day and royal chef Mark Flanagan and his staff are on duty from early in the morning.
And Britons who want to be part of the Royal Family’s diet should have their resumes in order. Three chef positions are among Palace’s 10 vacancies currently open for applications.
Buckingham Palace never sleeps. It’s open 24/7 and the side door, where all staff come and go, is never closed, writes BRIAN HOEY.
A special Royal Mail van arrives with the daily mail (up to 5,000 items at a time) so that private secretaries, who usually arrive before 7am, can review each letter and choose which ones to place before Her Majesty when she sits down. his desk. at 9.30
The King offers excellent facilities to his staff, but what he does not offer is a lot of money.
Working for the Royal Family means one can easily get a better-paying job abroad, as one former lackey discovered when he was persuaded to take a job in the United States paying $75,000 a year, plus a free car for him and his wife. .
Junior Palace staff start by earning around £10 an hour. But they do get accommodation inside the Palace and free meals.
Everyone who works at the Palace is entitled to breakfast, lunch (never just lunch) and dinner (full English) and no one is charged for a glass or two (or three) of wine.
The staff dining room is located on the first floor and everyone eats together, much to the dismay of certain members of the “old guard”, who appreciated their separate and privileged dining rooms, where liveried lackeys waited on their senior colleagues.
But the days of high-level staff being attended to by servants are long gone. It’s self-service for everyone, even the Lord Chamberlain, the man at the top.
But some discrimination remains, as it depends on your status, where you sit and with whom. A valet would never think of sharing a table with a newly arrived footman. But they may find themselves side by side holding trays in line for food.
However, there is still a breakfast room in the home where members can entertain outside guests once a month. This charming room is located on the ground floor overlooking the garden.
Although there used to be two kitchens, one reserved for the royal family and another for staff, today there is only one.
That change is due to the late Prince Philip, who discovered there were separate kitchens and thought it was all nonsense. He ordered them to be merged into a single operation.
Buckingham Palace Head Chef Mark Flanagan (left) alongside other members of the kitchen staff as they prepare for a reception to mark the launch of the UK-India Year of Culture, 2017.
Charles III at Buckingham Palace reading cards and messages sent by well-wishers following his cancer diagnosis
An Argos delivery van outside Buckingham Palace, December 2004
Buckingham Palace kitchen staff are seen busy working preparing food, 2000
Buckingham Palace head chef Mark Flanagan displays his range of copper frying pans in the kitchen.
The men guarding the entrance doors to the Palace are agents from the ‘A’ Division of the Metropolitan Police.
They are not technically members of the Royal Household, although some spend most of their careers in the Palace.
They have their own separate dining room in an enclosure within the Palace grounds.
All unmarried footmen and maids must live there. Their accommodation is on the upper floor, with the women in a corner and the men as far away as possible.
Newcomers get rooms in the back and move to the front as they move up the career ladder.
None of the staff rooms have a bathroom, so there is often a rush to the bathroom early in the morning.
A favorite joke is to persuade new arrivals that if they want to be accepted into the House, they must run naked through the hallways and female quarters.
King Charles III, accompanied by the Princess Royal, presents the new sovereign banner to the Blues and Royals during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, June 2023.
Staff review letters sent to Queen Elizabeth II after her Diamond Jubilee in 2012
Palace staff carrying tablecloths to the royal tea shop in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, 2001
A photograph from 2000 showing a staff member sorting letters in the mailroom.
Buckingham Palace is the most famous royal residence in the world
A cleaner hard at work, before staff arrive at one of the many desks in an office at Buckingham Palace, 2000.
Edward Griffiths, then deputy head of the household, walks through the picture gallery at Buckingham Palace, 2011
Most beginners fall into this trap, only to find that when they return to their own room, the door is locked.
Some of the women participate in the joke and take photographs that are then circulated.
When Prince Andrew was young, he supposedly enjoyed showing some of the photographs to his friends.
So, barring the cruel initiation, there’s a lot to enjoy working at Buckingham Palace (or Windsor Castle).