Prince William and Kate drop into a Soho pubon May 4, 2023 at 2:58 pm

There’s no such thing as a quiet pint if you’re the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Prince William and Catherine arrived at the Dog and Duck with crowds jammed into the narrow streets of Soho in the bohemian heart of central London.

Trying his hand at being a barman, Prince William pulled a pint of beer appropriately called “Kingmaker”.

The royal couple had travelled to Soho on the Elizabeth Line, named after the prince’s grandmother, the late Queen.

The lunchtime visit to the pub was to support the work of the hospitality industry in the run-up to the Coronation – an explanation not many of us could ever use convincingly.

“You just get the best conversations in a pub… everyone is relaxed. You never know who you’re going to meet,” said Prince William talking inside the pub.

That might be a view shared by local drinkers who have heard plenty of tall tales, but who was going to believe them that they’d seen Prince William and Kate popping into the Dog and Duck?

With the Coronation looming at the weekend, Prince William said his son Prince George was excited about the big day.

Outside Catherine shook hands with people in a growing crowd, although as every one of them was filming it on their phones it was a big decision whether to shake hands or keep recording.

Prince William, in a spirit of modernisation, has been pioneering the era of the tie-less royal, and he arrived at the pub wearing a jacket and open shirt. And so, taking his lead, all of his retinue also seemed to have ditched the neckwear.

They must have rumbled that the only people wearing ties in the post-Covid world are TV newsreaders, people at funerals and other people on royal visits.

Catherine was keeping up the side with a smart red outfit, which you’re quite likely to see on the front pages of newspapers, as she stood behind the bar in a way that would have made Peggy Mitchell proud.

These visits are a strange version of real life. A helicopter was hovering above, police had set up cordons and in the middle of it a man in a white coat was trying to deliver meat, baffled at what was going on.

The Dog and Duck has had famous visitors before. Madonna has been spotted here and in the 1940s it was the haunt of author George Orwell – and even his worst nightmares about a surveillance society couldn’t have expected the sheer number of camera-phones capturing every moment.

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It’s one of those London pubs full of old-fashioned mirrors and very modern prices, often frequented by Soho media types, which means people have been moaning about their jobs here for generations.

It’s long been part of the great pilgrimage of Soho pubs, such as the French House and the Coach and Horses.

But the serious part of the visit was to recognise the efforts of people in the hospitality industry who will be working through the Coronation weekend.

Pubs, restaurants and hotels are hoping for a coronation boom, with extended licensing hours.

TUC boss Paul Nowak earlier this week issued a reminder that the celebrations for the Coronation will depend on millions of people carrying on working.

That includes retail, leisure and transport as well as emergency services.

For some a pub might be seen as part of the emergency services – but for those wanting to enjoy a pint over the weekend, someone else has to be staffing the bar to serve it.

But on Saturday, Prince William and Catherine will be busy elsewhere in a different kind of service.

So they got into waiting cars outside Ronnie Scott’s jazz bar, with people hanging out of windows filming as they disappeared down Frith Street.