The King visited the Curated Makers Market and saw the stalls for small traders and craftspeople. It was founded by Megan Jones, who has been supported by the King’s Trust, formerly known as the Prince’s Trust.
“People tend to go to big shops, but here they can talk to people behind the brand,” said Soophia Foroughi, who chatted to the King about her handmade jewellery, under her label Ava and Azar.
Natasha Kutrovatz, who sells her own jewellery, was delighted by the King’s interest in people making a living from handmade crafts. “As a parent, it’s a much more flexible way of working,” she said.
The 1930s power station once produced a fifth of London’s electricity, including supplying landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.
The link to Buckingham Palace had been discreetly labelled as “Carnaby Street” in the control room, in case anyone broke in and literally wanted to switch off the Palace lights, said a spokeswoman for the power station.
With the crowds and cameras for the King’s visit, it was probably louder inside the halls than when it was generating power.
It’s enough to shake Santa’s workshop, although in a designer outlet like this, the resident Santa is living in a “yurt”.
This huge cathedral of the industrial age remains an impressive sight – and the King’s mother, when she was still Princess Elizabeth, had come here in 1949 to see the power station operating.
The power station, built with six million bricks, is now filled with shops and places to eat and drink and the King looked up inside this cavernous post-industrial landmark. He waved back to some rather taken-aback shoppers, looking down from the layers of walkways above.
The boiler house is so big that St Paul’s Cathedral could fit inside.
The King is known to be interested in architecture and design – and this building, with its four chimneys looking like an upside down coffee table, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, also responsible for the classic red phone box and Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.
