I tried living like the King ahead of the Coronation – was it worth it?
St James’s tailors dress King Charles. Ahead of the Coronation, our man Adam Bloodworth went to find out whether living like a King is all it’s cracked up to be
Rumour has it that princes William and Harry used to go to St James’s barbers Truefitt & Hill for their haircuts. They were taken there by Prince Charles who’d always gone there for his hairdos – that was until Diana convinced him Nicky Clarke was much cooler.
I’d agree. Looking at the royal warrant certificates hanging on Truefitt & Hill’s coffered wooden walls, hanging next to photos of dukes posing with their dogs, there are definitely cooler places to go for a shave. But there aren’t places with more royal pedigree. Wendy from Truefitt & Hill was the Duke of Edinburgh’s personal shaver all of his life, right until the end. She still manages the store, but when I go I’m towelled up by Jason from Brentwood, a young barber whose hot towel shave was so relaxing that I could barely muster an answer when someone offered me a mid-shave manicure. (A mid-shave manicure!)
Why am I here? I was making my way around some of St James’s’ oldest tailoring and grooming establishments as part of the Dukes hotel’s Royal Experience, designed to celebrate the Coronation, but really, to allow me to live like a King for the day. Anyone that knows me will know I try to live like a King on as many days as possible, but frequently fail, so I thought I’d better try it the proper way: the Dukes experience only features royal warrant holding establishments, I’ll have you know.
Thirty metres away at Locke & Co hatters someone pushes an ominous-looking Victorian metal object on my head. It retracts and expands and looks utterly terrifying and is over 100 years old, though no one knows exactly how old. It could even be the one Churchill used when he came here for his hats. An unnerving jolt, and a piece of paper is produced that mirrors the shape of my head, meaning I can get a hat that fits perfectly, like the late Duke did when he would come in here. (Locke & Co are hoping his royal warrant will be passed onto Prince Edward.)
I’ve never worn hats, but I’m recommended a fedora and it looks so sharp that I make a mental note to find somewhere that sells one for a tenth of the price so I can mirror this look when this kingly gallivant is all over. Founded in 1676, Locke & Co “moved to this premises in the 1700s,” one staffer says, almost embarrassed by how relatively recent the current digs are.
A short walk across St James’s and I arrive to my next royal warrant holders, Anderson & Sheppard, where staff member Michael is cutting a summer suit for a very famous politician. He turns over the label to disguise the name and laughs nervously. “Not all of our clients are famous.” But at the starting cost of £6,000 for a bespoke suit, they are all wealthy. “We look after the main man,” my tailor for the day tells me. That’s King Charles, by the way, who comes here – or rather, they go to him – for his everyday suits.
How does Charlie choose from over 100 house fabrics, some of which go for a couple of thousand per metre? We flick through one look book featuring only Vicuña wool from a type of mini camel whose chest fluff is used to make suits priced from £20,000. At Anderson & Sheppard their unique selling point is that each tailor is a specialist in one particular item. “We recently had someone retire who spent 52 years on trousers,” I’m told. Sample books dating back hundreds of years scale the walls, towering way above my head.
For my Coronation attire I choose a casual look by the tailors; a blue summer blazer paired with a white shirt and red, white and blue pocked square, ‘cause, you know, gotta nod to the “main man.”
I munch eggs with caviar, because apparently Charles likes eggs but chef found that too boring so he added fish. I won’t complain.
You’d miss the Dukes hotel unless you knew where it was. Only a minute’s walk from Truefitt & Hill, it’s deep within the labyrinth of St James’s back streets and was once favoured by Diana and 007 creator himself, Ian Fleming. I’m not allowed to say that Fleming developed the famous ‘shaken, not stirred’ preference here, so I order a vesper martini and go deep into my imagination to picture him huddled in a corner with his friends, drumming up a spy fantasy with something very dry, and disarmingly alcoholic, in his hand.
But we’re not here to talk about Bond. The Dukes hotel’s latest feat isn’t literary, but culinary: I’m here to eat the Royal Coronation Dinner, designed by executive chef Nigel Mendham around the food Charles likes. It’s the product of “plenty of Googling” about the King’s culinary tastes, he tells me as he threatens to place a whole smoked salmon on our table.
Sourced from London’s last smokehouse, it has so much flavour that I treat each slice as if it were a boiled sweet, turning the pieces around and around in my mouth. A main of beef wellington was almost the size of my head and to finish, an earl grey tea panna cotta with milk ice cream and a honey biscuit, which was memorably superb, achieving the right balance of dainty-looking and punchy-tasting.
The following morning, luxuriating in my suite, (like a king, may I add?) I munch eggs with caviar, because apparently Charles likes eggs but chef found that too boring so he added fish. I won’t complain.
Had I lived like a King? That depends on your perspective. Truefitt & Hill hasn’t tempted Charles back since Diana allegedly took him somewhere cooler, and I can understand why some royals might feel inclined to run a million miles from establishments that brand themselves on their royal association. But then again, I’m not a modern royal, so sign me up.
Dukes Coronation Package runs all year, go to dukeshotel.com to book. The package includes a pocket square fitting and tour at Anderson & Sheppard, a hat fitting at Locke & Co, a shave at Truefitt & Hill and a night’s stay at the Dukes hotel with dinner and breakfast
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