The pints of Wales
Mask up! Charles cheers return of the high street
THE Prince of Wales pub got a visit from its real-life namesake yesterday.
Prince Charles admitted he had always wanted to visit every pub of that name in the country. He even volunteered to pull a pint alongside the Duchess of Cornwall, and got the giggles as he tried to sip the bitter from under his mask.
Charles and Camilla were in high spirits as they visited Clapham Old Town in south-west London to encourage people to get back out into their local high street to shop, eat and drink.
And they couldn’t resist dropping into the aptly named venue. As he entered, the 72-year-old prince said: ‘I’ve always thought it would be rather fun to go round visiting every Prince of Wales in the country. Hopefully I’d get a free drink in each one!’ He also spotted a Toby Jug of the late Duke of Edinburgh on display and said: ‘That’s very nice to see.’
Owner Dermott Connell said it had been ‘absolutely surreal’ to have the prince and the duchess in his pub. He added that it had been an ‘incredibly tough’ time for the service industry but that he was hopeful, come June, things would be back to normal.
Mr Connell also praised the royal couple for doing everything they could to help. ‘He seemed a lovely man,’ he said.
Figures from the British Independent Retailers Association show that a fifth of independent businesses did not reopen after the first lockdown.
Footfall was still down 25 per cent last month compared to April 2019, despite lockdown restrictions being lifted.