Buckingham Palace restoration unearths historical artifacts

Ongoing restoration work at Buckingham Palace has unearthed a variety of historical everyday items hidden beneath floorboards and within the building's structure. The collection includes a ticket to a “whist drive” organized by the Royal Household’s social club from nearly 80 years ago, blank Littlewoods Football Pool betting slips from 1957, a pair of worn black hobnail boots, and an empty Silk Cut cigarette packet.

Other significant finds include an 1889 fragment of West End theatre listings from The Standard newspaper and a typed schedule from Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee year in 1977. The 1977 document detailed the timings and directions for a diplomatic reception, noting that the monarch would navigate the room in a “clockwise direction”.

The discoveries were made during a decade-long, £370 million reservicing project aimed at upgrading the palace's infrastructure, including plumbing, heating, and electrical systems. A priority of the project has been the removal of hazardous Vulcanised Indian Rubber (VIR) cabling, which poses a fire risk due to its tendency to become brittle with age. Approximately 2km of this cabling has been replaced since the project began in 2017.