Queen hosts party before summer trip
THE Queen is today hosting a private party for friends and family.
The drinks reception – a final get-together for the monarch before she heads to Balmoral in Scotland for her summer break – is taking place at Drapers’ Hall in the City of London.
The Queen has had a busy 2016 so far – celebrating both her actual and official 90th birthdays – and joked at the Patron’s Lunch: “How I will feel if people are still singing Happy Birthday to me in December remains to be seen.’’
Drapers’ Hall is described on The Drapers’ Company website as a “magnificent setting” which offers “unrivalled grandeur and opulence”.
Founded over 600 years ago, The Drapers’ Company is incorporated by Royal Charter and is one of the twelve Great Livery Companies in the City of London.
Buckingham Palace is preparing to welcome tourists through its doors from July 23 for the annual opening of the state rooms, with the exhibition this year focusing on the Queen’s outfits, from childhood to the present day.
The Queen will head to her private Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire at the end of the week.
The Highland retreat is one of her favourite places.
“Balmoral is a place one looks forward to very much as summer goes on. It has an atmosphere of its own, you just hibernate,” she once said.
The estate is used by the royal family for about eight weeks when they enjoy picnicking, fishing and seclusion from public life.