A Bermondsey man used to feed the Queen’s horses as a boy.
Russell Dryden, who is now a fishmonger and runs the Blue Bermondsey business improvement district (BID), used to go with his father to deliver coal to Buckingham Palace in the early 1960s.
His father worked for Charringtons, a company that was first set up in the 1730s, and which had the contract to deliver coal to Buckingham Palace.
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“It seems strange to think of it now but we used to drive right in through the back entrance,” Russell said. He never got to meet the Queen, but while he was waiting he would feed the horses in their stables.
Unsurprisingly, Buckingham Palace is no longer heated with coal, since 1994-95 operating on a combined heat and power system that uses natural gas.
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