Workers restoring Buckingham Palace have discovered dozens of unusual objects hidden beneath the floorboards for decades, the Daily Mail reported.
The finds turned up during renovation work at the London residence. Among them were a pair of worn shoes, an empty packet of Silk Cut cigarettes once smoked by Queen Camilla, and a fragment of a theatre poster from The Standard newspaper dated 1889.
The renovation crew also found football pools coupons from 1957 and a schedule for a diplomatic reception hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. Instructions for palace staff were tucked away with the schedule, directing aides to make sure British guests mingled with the visiting diplomats and to keep smoking out of certain rooms.
Relics of royal social life
Also among the discoveries was a ticket to a whist evening organised by the royal household's social club nearly 80 years ago. Workers additionally pulled up pages from the Daily Express dated 1966 describing the prison holding the men convicted of stopping a mail train in 1963 and making off with 120 bags of cash worth 2.6 million pounds at the time, a sum equivalent to more than 70 million pounds today. The 1963 robbery, later known as the Great Train Robbery, remains one of the most notorious heists in British history.
More items pulled from under the floor
The renovation also yielded a fragment of decorative ceramic tile, an old pewter mug, a bottle of Schweppes Still Malvern spring water, and a faded box containing six Christmas cards.
Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence and administrative headquarters of the British monarch since 1837 and regularly undergoes maintenance and restoration work, which is how the buried items came to light.
The discovery follows an earlier report that antique silverware, found by chance in an attic in London, was later sold at auction. Those silver pieces had been wrapped in newspaper and cloth and stored inside old trunks.
