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Peter Phillips to stage UK’s largest festive ice rink at Kensington Palace
Princess Anne's son says the closure of rinks at the Natural History Museum and the Tower of London 'created a gap' in the market
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Peter Phillips, the King’s nephew, has announced his latest business venture to come courtesy of his royal connections.
Mr Phillips, who as the son of the Princess Royal is 18th in line to the throne, is to stage the UK’s largest festive ice rink at Kensington Palace.
The 750-person capacity winter wonderland rink will be open over the Christmas period, built on a helipad in the grounds of the royal residence – the London home of his cousin, the Prince of Wales, and the Princess of Wales.
Ice At Kensington Palace is billed as “a magical winter event with sustainability at its core” – values which Mr Phillips said were inspired by the King.
The 45-year-old told Hello! magazine it was his own idea to use the royal palace as the backdrop for the ice rink.
He said his business partner had approached him and asked: “Do you know anywhere in central London? Can you think of anywhere?”
The closure of rinks at the Natural History Museum and the Tower of London had “created a gap” in the market, so they had been searching for a venue in the capital.
“I’ve obviously done a number of events in central London, and on this site, so we looked at it and we started to come up with some plans,” he said.
“And then started to approach the (royal) household in the manner that you have to approach them, to be able to plant the seed and see if we could make something happen.”
Mr Phillips said that “fortunately” he was now in a position to host the event.
Acknowledging that the King owns Kensington Palace on behalf of the nation, he said the focus on sustainability was solely down to “whose backyard we’re in”.
“We very much have to align with their core values, “ he added.
“That is really driving all that we are doing. So, all the way through from our suppliers to our games providers, to food providers, and so and so forth, and all of our partners as well, everyone needs to be able to sign up to the process of sustainability and how we can make a winter event more sustainable.”
A general ice skating ticket costs £18 for children and £22 for adults, while the Chairman’s Box - a private room overlooking the rink boasting a bar and buffet - costs £5,400.00 for two hours.
Mr Phillips is no stranger to controversy, having profited from his royal connections on several occasions.
In 2008, both he and his former wife, Autumn, were criticised after selling photographs of their Windsor wedding to Hello! Magazine for £500,000.
In 2016, Mr Phillips helped organise one of the world’s biggest street parties, the Patron’s Lunch, to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday, an event that raised money for the Patron’s Fund.
But he was forced to step down as a trustee of the charity after it emerged that he was also a director of SEL UK, the sports and events firm which had come up with the idea and received a set fee for staging the event, said to have been almost as much as the funds generated for good causes.
Jamie Singer, a lawyer involved in organising the event, said at the time: “It was always Mr Phillips’s intention to step down as a trustee once the Patron’s Fund was fully operational to ensure that there was no perceived conflict of interest and to ensure the integrity of the event and the charity were maintained.”
Mr Phillips was in hot water again in 2021 after starring in a Chinese television advert for Jersey milk.
He is listed on Companies House as the sole director of Festival of British Eventing Ltd. Accounts filed in October last year show the company made a profit of £9,678.