Palace gets cleaning supplies out for Kate & Williams Wedding
26 April 2011
With the royal wedding now just a few days away, the palace are busy cleaning up for the big day with cleaning supplies
With one of the biggest events in recent years just days away, the palace will be working furiously to ensure that everything is just so when guests from all around the world gather to celebrate Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.
By now the marble fireplaces will have been cleaned using specialist cleaning supplies. The heavy ornate curtains would have been cleaned and dusted down, probably in place. We know that the chandeliers have recently been carefully cleaned by contractors at a cost of £96,000.00 and will be looking their most magnificent best for the big day.
No doubt the carpets will have been spring cleaned in the nineteen state rooms using specialist woolsafe cleaning supplies. The rooms will be used to entertain the guests throughout the day. The table which will be used to serve the 650 guests with the wedding breakfast buffet, is so big that staff tasked to clean and polish it have had to attach dusters to their feet and slide across it.
State dining room with walls adorned with paintings of sovereigns from throughout history
Buckingham palace has a total of 760 windows, usually these are cleaned every six weeks on a rota using glass cleaning supplies.
The bathrooms will be kitted out with flowers, hand creams, sewing kits, scents and other cosmetic items that their guests may happen to require on the day. Of course the bathrooms would have been deep cleaned before the event with cleaning supplies to ensure their best visual appearance.
Outside of the palace the entrances would have been deep cleaned and looking spick and span to welcome the wedding guests. The cars and carriages carrying the wedding party would have received full makeovers. Carriages would have been polished over and over,to achieve a deep shine finish. Seating would have been specially cleaned and treated whilst the windows would be buffed and sparkling using specialist glass cleaning supplies and polishes.
The bronze statues outside the Palace have received maintenance work whereby brass cleaning supplies and pastes would have been painstakingly applied, polished off and buffed to ensure that they look their best when the eyes of the world are on them, an estimated 2 billion people are expected to watch the wedding all over the world.
One cleaning task that has become a ritual which most tourists do not see is the daily 'dragging' of the gravel on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. It is cleaned and combed using mechanical equipment first thing daily. Regular inspections take place throughout the day to ensure that any rubbish is cleared away. This helps to ensure that the forecourt always looks pristine.
The military personnel involved with the parade will have been busy preparing their uniforms especially the Welsh guard who receive new boots for the day and will have spent weeks polishing them to the mirror finish which is required, apparently each man will use four or five tins of shoe polish to achieve this finish. The guards have been ordered to shower the night before wearing their bearskins which will then be treated to a blow dry and proudly worn in the procession.
Of course all this additional cleaning and use of additional cleaning products will have meant that budgets for cleaning supplies and staff costs, will have needed to be increased to account for all the additional spending.
