Business was also up at the Buckingham Palace Road flagship shop of Pulbrook & Gould, a luxury florist with longstanding royal connections.
People are buying lots of roses and lilies to lay down outside the palace, Erik Karlsen, the manager said. Many were also choosing garden flowers as a tribute. "Mainly because of the Queen's devotion to the English countryside and her love of flowers and gardens," the 63-year-old told DW.
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-businesses-near-buckingham-palace-report-brisk-but-sad-trade-since-queens-death/a-63083450
Stores and hotels closest to the UK monarchy's official London residence are used to making money from the royals. But this time it's different.
The mood on Buckingham Palace Road was not as somber as it could have been, all things considered, on the day Charles III was proclaimed King.
In the Bag O' Nails pub, the ceremony at St James's Palace played on the television but the sound was drowned out by chatter and the clinking of glasses.
Patricia Hajali, the manager of Cool Britannia, a souvenir shop just down the street, said she thought the sadness would come later as the funeral of Elizabeth II, set for September 19th, approached.
"I suppose people are in the process of digesting, like in any process of mourning," she said. "We don't play music upstairs, out of respect," she said.
"It is busier," the Costa Rican-born, longtime UK resident said. "Sadly it is."
Flowers as a tribute
Business was also up at the Buckingham Palace Road flagship shop of Pulbrook & Gould, a luxury florist with longstanding royal connections.
People are buying lots of roses and lilies to lay down outside the palace, Erik Karlsen, the manager said. Many were also choosing garden flowers as a tribute. "Mainly because of the Queen's devotion to the English countryside and her love of flowers and gardens," the 63-year-old told DW.
One customer at the florist was a 54-year-old man who had come to London with his teenage daughter. The pair weren't too impressed with Pulbrook & Gould prices though. Stems were being sold for 10 pounds each (€11.55) and the would-be customer joked that there could be a touch of "profiteering” afoot.
Store manager Karlsen said he expected some commissions from the royal household ahead of the funeral. Pulbrook & Gould has done a number of weddings and state occasions over the years, he explained.
He himself was of aristocratic German lineage, his full name being Erik Karlsen von Wettin. "Only by descent," he stressed. Any chance he could be a distant cousin of Elizabeth's? "No, none at all," he said wryly.