Old Betting Slips and 1949 Whist Drive Ticket Found During Buckingham Palace Restoration

^{Workers restoring Buckingham Palace uncovered decades-old betting slips and a 1949 whist drive ticket tied to the staff social club. (Photo: Julian Herzog / Wikimedia Commons)}

Restoration workers at Buckingham Palace have uncovered a trove of everyday objects left behind by palace staff over the past 140 years, including several old betting slips and a ticket for a 1949 card-game night run by the royal household's own social club.

The items were found hidden within the building's infrastructure during an ongoing £369 million refurbishment, the BBC reported on 13 September 2026. They are thought to belong to staff who worked at the palace decades ago and were only uncovered as workers replaced ageing cables, lead pipes and wiring, much of it untouched for 60 years.

Whist Drive Ticket and Littlewoods Pools Slips Among the Finds

A ticket for a "whist drive" hosted by the palace on 14 April 1949 was found embedded in a lump of brick. Priced at sixpence, it dates from the reign of King Charles III's grandfather, George VI, and reads "Royal Household Social Club – Buckingham Palace: A Whist Drive to be held on," stamped with the event date.

Blank Littlewoods Football Pool betting slips from 1957 were also recovered under floorboards, alongside several other betting slips whose exact date has not been specified. The football pools business behind those slips has itself been in the news recently: Football Pools Limited was fined £375,000 by the Gambling Commission for regulatory failings, a reminder of how tightly the pastime staff once played informally at the palace is now regulated nearly 70 years on.

Part of a Wider Haul From the Palace's Hidden Corners

The betting memorabilia was found alongside other everyday relics, including a pair of battered hobnail boots, an empty Silk Cut cigarette carton, a bottle of Schweppes spring water and a 1966 newspaper cutting detailing the prison holding the Great Train Robbers. Fragments of mid-1800s Minton ceramic tiles and a scrap of 1889 West End theatre listings were also uncovered.

"The British guests will be distributed throughout the State Rooms, except the Music Room and West Gallery, where they should be encouraged to talk to the Diplomats," reads a typed 1977 schedule found among the items, detailing how Queen Elizabeth II's aides planned to work the room at a Silver Jubilee diplomatic reception.

The palace's 10-year refurbishment programme, funded through a temporary increase in the Sovereign Grant, is due to be completed in March. King Charles and Queen Camilla are currently based at Clarence House and will not return to live at Buckingham Palace once the work is finished, with officials citing plans to allow greater public access to the building.

Betting has long been part of everyday British life regardless of setting, from palace staff rooms to corner shops. Recent Gambling Commission research found that nearly half of Britons gambled in the past month, with the National Lottery remaining the most popular format, followed closely by bingo.