A ticket to a card game night organised by the Royal Household’s social club nearly eight decades ago is among a collection of forgotten objects uncovered during ongoing restoration work at Buckingham Palace.
Blank Littlewoods Football Pool betting coupons from 1957, a pair of worn black hobnail boots, and an empty Silk Cut cigarette packet were among the everyday items discovered beneath the structure, alongside an almost 140-year-old fragment of West End theatre listings from The Standard newspaper in 1889.
Also retrieved was a meticulous, typed schedule detailing the timings and directions for Queen Elizabeth II’s hosting of a diplomatic reception during her Silver Jubilee year in 1977, which revealed that the monarch would navigate the room in a “clockwise direction”.
The misplaced items, found underneath floorboards and in hidden spaces throughout the royal residence during construction work, offer a rare look into the personal lives of those who worked and lived behind the scenes at the palace.
Having remained concealed for decades, preserved deep within the fabric of the building, the objects were uncovered by contractors executing the refurbishment.
The palace is currently undergoing a £370 million reservicing project spanning a decade, aimed at rewiring electrical systems, replacing old plumbing and heating, and restoring infrastructure to protect the historic building from long-term damage.
Workers also identified sections of electrical wiring coated in Vulcanised Indian Rubber (VIR) cabling, which represented the highest fire risk to the property. Because the rubber degrades and becomes brittle over time, removing the cabling was made an immediate priority when the project began in 2017 ahead of its planned completion next year.
Approximately 2km of the rubber cabling has been removed so far, a distance equivalent to the length of 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The small, once-white ticket for the Whist Drive, priced at sixpence (6d) and dated 14 April 1949 during the reign of the King’s grandfather, George VI, was found embedded inside a lump of construction rubble.
The pass for the staff social gathering at the residence, where workers would play progressive rounds of the classic card game, reads “Royal Household Social Club – Buckingham Palace: A Whist Drive to be held on” followed by the faded, stamped date “14 APR 1949”.
In April 1949, Queen Elizabeth II was still Princess Elizabeth, having been married to Prince Philip for under 18 months, while their eldest child, the present King, then prince Charles, was just five months old.
Also unearthed were pages from a 1966 issue of the Daily Express detailing the “maximum security” prison housing the Great Train Robbers, showcasing photographs inside Durham Prison and revealing that “the men who were found guilty of stealing a fortune in mailbags spend their week stitching them for nine shillings”.
The instructions provided to Royal Household staff for the 1977 Diplomatic Corps event showed that the Queen and other members of the royal family were to walk around the Ball Room in a “clockwise direction”.
Aides were instructed to prompt the 350 British guests to mingle with diplomats during the formal gathering, where the required dress code was white tie and decorations or national dress, with royal women wearing tiaras.
“The British guests will be distributed throughout the State Rooms, except the Music Room and West Gallery, where they should be encouraged to talk to the Diplomats,” the manually typed sheet read.
It added: “In the Ball Room, Her Majesty and other Members of the Royal Family will move round the room in a clockwise direction”.
The document also said that smoking was strictly prohibited across specific state rooms and outlined a rigid schedule, saying: “Drinks will be served to guests in the Blue Drawing Room, State Dining Room and West Gallery between 9.30 and 10.00pm.
“Guests allotted to the Ball Room will be served drinks in the Ball Room Annexe from 9.30pm until approximately 10.15pm. Smoking will not be permitted in any of these rooms.”
Other finds included a section of decorative Minton ceramic tiles from a fireplace hearth, with a design dating to around the mid-1800s, an old pewter tankard, a bottle of Schweppes Still Malvern English Spring Water, a wooden junction box, and a faded box containing six Christmas cards.
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