In 1999, Victoria and David Beckham purchased a £2.5million estate in Hertfordshire. The extravagance with which they renovated the place – including but not limited to superimposing their faces on Cinderella and Prince Charming in Disney-themed bedrooms – inspired the tabloid press to rename their country pile “Beckingham” palace. “It’s really camp,” Victoria was reported to have said at the time. “There’s a room like a tart’s boudoir, with leopard print everywhere and a mirrored ceiling.”
Buckingham Palace – and all its eccentric chinoiserie furnishings, priceless Winterhalter portraits and Carolean revival thrones – be damned. I wonder if the Beckhams weren’t mining the palace’s lavish interiors for inspiration when dining alongside the King and Queen at a state banquet last night. Victoria wore an hourglass gown of her own making while David decorated a classic tailcoat with his OBE medal. A long-awaited knighthood is surely in the pipeline for the man who once spent 12 hours queuing alongside the public to see the late Queen Elizabeth II lying in state in 2022.
