Paul Burrell has written about a two-word nickname given to Buckingham Palace(Image: Getty)
Former royal butler Paul Burrell has lifted the lid on the hilarious two-word nickname given by staff to Buckingham Palace.
Paul, 67, worked for Princess Diana between 1987 and 1997, also spoke about the drinking culture within Buckingham Palace’s walls, including amongst the staff.
Writing in his new book, The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana, he said: “It wasn’t just bed-hopping that went on in the palaces; there was a degree of inebriation which often helped loosen people’s inhibitions.
“Forget Buckingham Palace, it was nicknamed ‘Gin Palace’ after the spirit that flowed freely through the everyday workings of the building. Gin, always, Gordon’s, was the drink of choice.”
Furthermore, Paul added that the drinking culture he experienced while working at the famous UK landmark contrasted greatly with that of his own upbringing and touched on certain methods deployed for allegedly smuggling booze into the building.
Paul Burrell(Image: Getty)
Paul added: “Coming from a world where a pint of Mansfield Bitter pulled by my auntie Pearl in the local was the norm, with a cherry brandy or a snowball at Christmas.
“I wasn’t used to such extravagance, but I quickly became quite familiar with the ingenious ways in which the household smuggled booze for their soirees.
“I would be ordered by senior members of staff to empty a screw-topped tonic water bottle each night and fill it with gin for them to use for parties in their rooms. These parties were for a select group of staff.
“There was a hierarchy downstairs as well as upstairs. Certain cliques of servants, depending on your rank and length of service, were invited to the soirees.”
Paul Burrell and Princess Diana(Image: Getty)
Paul since admitted he was “nervous” when he first met the late-monarch and recalled that the first time was when he was carrying a silver tray with 20 Royal Worcester coffee cups, saucers, and gilt spoons on it that were required for an event featuring around 30 members of the family.
He said: “Then my nerves got the better of me and the cups and saucers all started to rattle. I will never forget the noise. All I had to do was stand behind the Queen and the pages would come to me and collect the cups.”
Paul also lifted the lid on King Charles’s “excessive demands” while he was working for the Royal Family.
He wrote: “His routines have never changed. His toothpaste is squeezed onto his toothbrush every morning and he uses a silver key which winds down the tube to avoid any waste.”
Yet whilst Charles professes to “abhor” waste, Burrell claims he is simultaneously remarkably extravagant regarding his wardrobe: “His pyjamas are laundered or pressed every day, the drawstring tapes pressed flat like his shoelaces.
“He, again like his father, likes his dress shoes to be ‘spit-and-polished’ to a mirror finish.”