King Charles visits BRIT School in Croydon ahead of 78th birthday
King Charles visited the BRIT School in Croydon on Friday, the day before his 78th birthday. He is marking the birthday itself on Saturday privately, according to Hello! Magazine.
The visit began with a scare. Hello! reports that the King was surrounded by excited schoolchildren as he arrived, and that police protection officers stepped in to stop him being crushed. The King was not hurt, and the tour went on.
The BRIT School is a state school for performing arts and technology. Its best-known former pupils include Adele, Amy Winehouse and Raye. During the visit the King watched a student fashion show and a rehearsal for an upcoming production of the musical Chess. He also watched a flash mob, a group of performers who suddenly gather and perform together, set to a medley of songs by alumni. For part of the tour he was joined by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer.
This was the King's first visit to the school as monarch and as Prince of Wales. Queen Elizabeth II visited in 2002, and the Duke of Sussex visited in 2016. The King's trip was the latest in a line of royal visits to the school.
From the school the King went to Surrey Street Market, a long-running street market in Croydon. Traders presented him with a large birthday cake. Its icing read: "Happy Birthday, Your Majesty. 750 years of Surrey Street Market Croydon." The message refers to the market's long history, which the cake marked as its 750th anniversary.
Visits like this one are usually planned in advance by the royal household, which arranges the King's diary, and they are recorded in the Court Circular, the official daily record of royal engagements.
For a visitor on the day, the programme was simple to follow: a school, a stage, a market and a cake. For the pupils, it meant a chance to show their work to a man who had come to see it. The King's birthday falls on Saturday, and he will spend it away from public events, according to the same report.
