The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s trip to a Scottish pub has been criticised by local residents after the venue blamed “maintenance” for it being closed to the public that afternoon.
The Cold Town House in Edinburgh cancelled bookings by sending customers an email citing, “essential maintenance work” and saying it was due to “circumstances outside of their control”.
Yet, in reality the 38-year-old duke was paying a visit the pub with wife duchess Catherine 39, along with some local key workers to watch the Scottish Cup final, which took place between St Johnstone and Hibernian on Saturday (22.05.21).
When a disappointed customers found out the pub was being economical with the truth, they didn’t take it well.
A source told the Daily Record newspaper: “We were lied to. They could have used another excuse rather than ‘essential maintenance,’ they didn’t even have to say the prince was coming.”
In a statement of apology, the pub said the closure to the general public was in the interests of “national security”.
And in an attempt to make amends, the Cold Town House is thought to be offering customers who had their bookings cancelled, free pizza and cocktails.
The pub’s business development director Louise MacLean said: “We’re really sorry to anyone who feels inconvenienced by the temporary closure of Cold Town House on Saturday 22nd May. We never want to let our customers down and will always do whatever we can to avoid this ever happening. This was an extremely rare and proud opportunity for us to welcome The Duke of Cambridge to Cold Town House as part of his wider visit to Scotland, as well as being a great chance to showcase some of the best Scottish hospitality during one of the most challenging times for the industry.”
The visit was part of William and Catherine’s tour of Scotland which came to an end on Thursday (27.05.21).
During their trip the royal couple visited the town of St. Andrews, where they first met at university 20 years ago.