A Unique Experience in the World’s Oldest Coffee Shop
Sitting down to enjoy a cappuccino in what may be the world’s oldest coffee shop, I find myself in The Undercroft Café, located within the grounds of Windsor Castle. This remarkable place is housed in a cellar built by Edward III around 1350, just as the Black Death was beginning to subside. The café features a magnificent, vaulted ceiling and offers a unique blend of history and modernity. The chocolate powder on top of my coffee is shaped like a royal crown, adding a touch of regal flair to my experience.
As I sip my coffee, I can’t help but notice that His Majesty has just sold me a cup for £4.40. To add to this, I had already paid £32 to enter his home. It’s an unusual way to start the day, but it’s part of the experience.
Royal Merchandise and Luxury Collaborations
Leaving The Undercroft, I come across a royal gift shop conveniently situated just outside. Here, visitors can choose from hundreds of licensed royal souvenirs, many clearly marked with ‘Copyright His Majesty King Charles III 2025’. The royals are now expanding their commercial ventures, having collaborated with the British heritage brand Burberry on a luxury four-piece capsule collection. This collection, launched last month, marks the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II and is already almost all sold out. Among the limited-edition designs is a £2,190 gabardine belted car coat with holly-green silk lining and a £435 checked cashmere scarf (both pictured, opposite), as well as a Balmoral Silk iteration at £375. The standout piece is a natty gold-plated £395 corgi brooch.
A Wide Range of Souvenirs
The official royal merch shops, which include three more in Windsor Castle, four at Buckingham Palace, one at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and an online store with worldwide shipping, offer a vast array of items. From a royal-branded Mappin & Webb carriage clock for £6,000 to a Buckingham Palace ‘luxury shower cap’ (£8.95), fridge magnet (£6), God Save The King cooking apron (£19.96), Buckingham Palace guardsman stuffed bear (£20), Balmoral honey (£10) and a crown-stamped wooden egg cup (£4.96), there’s something for everyone.
At the largest Buckingham Palace shop, there’s a swish jewellery counter overseen by giant photos of the King and Queen in matching crowns, and Catherine, Princess of Wales modelling an extravagant diamond necklace. Here, you can find almost-affordable tat, from a Gold Hematite and White Pearl Collar for £220, down to £30 hair clips.
Commercialisation and Global Appeal
In another Buck House shop, there’s Balmoral brand 1978 single malt (‘tasted by The King’ before being bottled) at £3,200 a bottle, a £2,200 royal-blue handbag by Launer, the brand favoured by the late Queen, and a Queen Elizabeth II Centenary Teacup & Saucer (£80). This commercialisation of the monarchy is little known to British people, as we tend not to be tourists in our own country. However, when Harry and Meghan are sneered at for selling their ‘product’ – ie, themselves – I wonder if their critics are aware of the large-scale commercial enterprise, courtesy of The Firm, that’s right under our noses, not in California.
International Buyers and Cultural Exchange
Interestingly, the most enthusiastic buyers of these souvenirs are Chinese tourists, who outnumber even the Americans. At one of the Chinese restaurants just yards from Windsor Castle’s walls, 50 or more Chinese tourists were almost all carrying bags of souvenirs to take back to where they were made.
Beyond Gift Shops: Royal Enterprises
Royal money-making extends beyond the gift shops. When he was still Prince Charles, in 1990 the King started Duchy Originals, now Waitrose Duchy Organic, which reported a profit of £3.6 million in 2021. And, at his country place, Highgrove, there’s yet another royal enterprise, called simply Highgrove, selling a range of Charles products, from signed lithographs of His Majesty’s paintings (£3,500) to jars of organic mustard (£5.95).
Financial Transparency and Public Perception
The royal family’s commercial revenue is not used to keep the family in treats, although it does save them from having to fund conservation themselves or go to the government holding out a begging bowl. The Royal Collection Trust shops’ profit (or surplus as it’s called, being a charity), totalling £14 million in 2025, maintain the Royal Collection – all those Holbeins and Canalettos don’t conserve themselves. The 2025 review of the Royal Collection Trust charity itself says more than half of its total £90 million income from 2024-25 went on access and conservation costs.
However, the full-on commercialism of Charles III’s royal house brings to mind an awkward truth: that before their little earners are taken into consideration, the British royals are already extremely rich, because of an accident of birth. How rich? Well, they’re pretty secretive and the royals’ finances are notoriously immensely complicated, but the best estimates extracted by experts combing through the reports put King Charles’s personal wealth at £1.8 billion and Prince William’s at £1 billion. Some estimate Charles’s pile to be smaller and William’s larger.
The Crown Estate and Its Value
The Crown Estate, the palaces, estates, duchies, collections, livestock, whole villages, coastline, seabed, even the petrol stations (yes, the Barthomley Service Station on the M6), along with the private and Crown Jewels, which can’t technically be sold off, but it’s fun to work out their value anyway, total around £160 billion. It’s fair to say the late Queen and her father would have been embarrassed by it all.
But on a wet Thursday in Windsor, as you see a troop of 90 Chinese schoolchildren in orange rain capes march up to the visitor gates from their lunch at the Yangtze restaurant, all bursting to spend their school-trip pocket money on knick-knacks, the business acumen of Kerching Charles III is there for all to see.
