Hidden tobacco stash found by workmen as the Palace is rewired

Newspaper clippings from 1889 are among the items that have been discovered by workmen carrying out renovation works to the palace.

The ripped fragments of a November 27 edition of the Evening Standard, almost 130 years ago, were found, along with three empty packets of Piccadilly, Wild Woodbine and Player’s Navy Cut, as potentially dangerous wiring was replaced.

The work is part of a 10-year refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, expected to cost nearly £370m, to avoid the risk of “catastrophic building failure” at the Queen’s main residence.

The removal of vulcanised Indian rubber cabling, which was installed in the late 1940s and which is no longer in use, is the first stage of the reservicing of the building. So far 1.2 miles of the wiring has been replaced, equivalent to the length of 40 Olympic sized swimming pools, the palace said.

The Queen’s audience room was among those rewired, with work taking place as she stayed at Balmoral.

Barbara Welch, programme director, said: “The vulcanised Indian rubber becomes really brittle with age and it cracks and it falls off, exposing live electrical cables, which is a real fire risk.”

She added: “We are doing this removal work for the cabling now because it presents the highest risk to the Palace and therefore the sooner we get that risk out of this building, the better.”

The refit of Buckingham Palace, which has been described as “essential” by officials, will also include replacing boilers and miles of cables, pipes and electrical wires.

Coincidentally, the old cigarette packets are almost identical to those found last week by workmen who removed the seats at Bradford’s St George’s concert hall during a renovation.