Royalty descended on King’s today as Prince William visited the Maughan library to film a speech for Chinese state television.
Hordes of students abandoned their work to watch the Duke of Cambridge enter the Weston Room, accompanied by other high-profile figures including TV presenter Bear Grylls, basketball player Yao Ming and broadcaster David Attenborough.
The speech condemning the illegal ivory trade was delivered to an audience of approximately 80 students and guests in the Maughan library.
The Duke: “The good news is that we are far from powerless in this struggle. We can turn the tide of extinction”
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 19, 2015
On departing the library the Duke stopped to chat with some King’s students, asking about their preparation for exams.
The location of the speech was revealed in the early hours of Monday morning on the official Twitter account of Kensington Palace.
Fourth year German student and royalist Anisha Lakshmi waited four hours to get a glimpse of Prince William.
She described him as an “extremely personal and friendly person, immediately putting smiles on people’s faces and immersing himself into conversation.â€
The event will mark the third time the Duke has spoken about the ivory trade in a year, and comes in the build-up to a four day state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the UK.
The Duke meets CCTV1 Let’s Talk programme participants- Sir David Attenborough, @BearGrylls and @YaoMing pic.twitter.com/4lRz7gPMiu
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 19, 2015
The pre-recorded speech will air to an audience of approximately 100 million people in China on CCTV, described as the Chinese equivalent of BBC1. It will feature as part of a series of programmes called ‘Let’s talk’ later this month.
This isn’t the first time Maughan has been in the spotlight. Other famous appearances of the Maughan include Johnny English and numerous music videos.
And despite persistent rumours, a 2013 edition of the library newsletter revealed that the Round Reading Room was not used as a filming location for Dumbledore’s office.
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