Cape Town – When a Buckingham Palace builder was asked if he'd like a cup of tea on the job he quipped, "Yeah, in a mug. Two sugars."
Royal upholsterer, Kevin Andrews, told the story of the Buckingham builder in a Channel 5 documentary, Secrets of the Royal Palaces, according to HELLO!.
He explained, hard at work the contractor didn't exactly know who he was talking when he added that he wants a "builders tea".
"I don't want any of that nonsense I had the last time I was here, all that fine china and all that saucer stuff."
The woman disappeared, and when she approached once more, she said, "I've put your tea on the table here."
The woman walked away, and the man looked up shocked to see the disappearing figure was, in fact, Her Majesty, The Queen.
Not much else is known about the incident, but the builder, who was in complete shock, did live to tell the tale. Whether he finished the job or not – he was dismantling a desk, according to Express – well, we'll never know.
The documentary also revealed another interesting fact about the palace – the queen once had her own bar on the premises, according to Business Insider.
Harper's BAZAAR reports, according to former royal chef, Darren McGrady, the queen's drink of choice is a gin and Dubonnet – though she doesn't drink much. She'd much prefer a cuppa tea.
It's no wonder the palace bar didn't last very long. According to Dickie Arbiter, "they had to get rid" of it after staff ended up "too worse for wear", which, of course, is a very polite for the former royal press secretary to say things got lit up in the palace, and the crew got pretty wasted.