Decoding His Royal Workspace: Prince Charles reveals his messy desk (and love of greenery)
We’ve all had to get creative with our working-from-home set-ups during the UK lockdown, with desks - both actual and ‘makeshift’, strewn with occasional homeschooling and cats - and it seems that His Royal Workspace is no different.
An image of Prince Charles, released to coincide with a series of interviews on Classic FM this week, shows the heir to the throne at his seat of power. And it seems pleasingly proletariat in its chaos and haphazard arrangement.
Taken at his Scottish home Birkhall, wearing what appears to be his country attire of oatmeal-hued tweed blazer with a blue shirt and plum tie, the prince talks to presenter Alan Titchmarsh via an iPad, surrounded by kingly detritus spread across his desk, from photographs to paperwork and stack of books.
The box his screen is propped up on is British luxury house Asprey, with its signature smokey violet hue; the brand has had a relationship with the Royal family since the days of Queen Victoria, when it created luggage for her. Prince Charles has been known to wear cufflinks from the label.
Most prominent on the desk is a photograph of a headscarved Duchess of Cornwall, beside a picture of the Queen Mother. During the interviews broadcast this week, the Prince of Wales talked of his affection for her and how she introduced him to a love of classical music.
His grandson Prince George appears in a picture on the chest of drawers behind him, which has a painting propped up against it; it’s heartening to know that even our future king doesn’t get round to hanging up the pictures.
The prince’s love of the natural world has been well documented, and that affinity seems to have parlayed into the verdant tones on his sofa, chinaware and lamp. One of the interior design tips offered by Telegraph experts during lockdown has been to bring the outdoors in, so we can only assume his Royal Highness has been reading.
And as with the clutter of his desk, it seems that the prince’s music collection is just as disordered; a stereo in the background features towers of CDs alongside. His sons might live in a digital age, but like most septuagenarians, clearly the prince prefers a physical manifestation rather than digital copy when he’s putting on a touch of Bach.
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