The Queen has a secret 'booze tunnel' running from St. James’s Palace to a fancy cocktail bar

Chin-chin.

the Queen

Chin-chin.

It's no secret that the Royal Family love a good tipple.

From Meghan Markle’s famously good Pimm’s recipe, to the Queen's unusual choice of signature cocktail, the royals are partial to a good bev as much as the rest of us – I mean, just ask the monarch, who has a secret 'booze tunnel' hidden beneath St. James's Palace.

Yes, the Queen has been known to have a secret passage or two at Buckingham Palace (think murder mystery-style bookcases doubling as hidden doors), but the tunnel that runs from St. James’s Palace to a very swanky cocktail bar indeed is just on a whole different level.

While the monarch probably would have preferred to have kept her secret watering hole to herself, Princess Eugenie's husband Jack Brooksbank let slip that the 'booze tunnel' is, in fact, a thing, and it leads to a cocktail bar fit for not just a Queen, but the Queen

The secret was revealed when Richard Eden, the royals editor of the Daily Mail, wrote a piece for the tabloid recounting a conversation he had with Jack in 2018. In the piece, Eden explains that Jack, who was hosting a party for his tequila brand Casamigos when the two crossed paths, revealed that among the many tunnels rumoured to go in and out of the Palace, one of them goes straight to Duke's Bar, the well-heeled cocktail bar inside of Mayfair's 5-star Duke's Hotel.

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Though Eugenie's husband, whom she wed in 2018, caveated, "I haven’t used it yet. But I’d love to check it out."

Pardon?

In the same (absolutely wild) story, Eden goes on to tell of how Jack got in trouble with his Casamigos colleagues for telling people that the tequila "doesn't give you hangovers", when really, he should have been doling out advice more along the lines of "drink responsibly".

Yikes.

Oh well, at least it's nice to know that even the royals let loose from time to time – even if their version involves a few £15 martinis from London's most exclusive cocktail bar, as oppose to, say, a bottle of Lambrini and a queue outside the kebab shop.

Kate McCusker

Kate McCusker is a freelance writer at Marie Claire UK, having joined the team in 2019. She studied fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins, and her byline has also appeared in Dezeen, British Vogue, The Times and woman&home. In no particular order, her big loves are: design, good fiction, bad reality shows and the risible interiors of celebrity houses.