A warm welcome from the Queen and a two-bar fire.
The Queen may live in a 775-room palace but, it seems, she has the same concerns as any other pensioner when it comes to the rising cost of heating.
With temperatures plunging, Her Majesty might have been expected to have a roaring log fire on the go. Instead, the ornate fireplace in her Audience Room at Buckingham Palace boasts a rather ancient-looking two-bar electric fire, for sale at most electrical stores for pounds 29.99.
The Royal family is famously hardy when it comes to the cold. Visitors to Balmoral often complain about the draughts. This picture also shows how carefully the Queen manages her budget.
In recent years a backlog of essential repairs at the Royal palaces has built up as finances were squeezed by successive governments. The Queen has responded with cost-cutting measures including a pay freeze for aides and the scrapping of the Christmas party for palace staff.
The photograph, taken yesterday when the Queen played host to the Australian High Commissioner, Michael Rann, at Buckingham Palace, offers a fascinating glimpse into the monarch's living arrangements. Paintings by Canaletto and Gainsborough hang on the walls but the Queen has surrounded herself with treasured photographs spanning four generations of her family.
On a table is a wedding photograph of her youngest son, the Earl of Wessex, and his bride, the Countess of Wessex, signed by several family members. A sideboard is given over to the generation before the Queen, with photographs of her mother, Queen Elizabeth, her father, George VI, and her uncle, Edward VIII.
Two side-tables are dedicated to her grandchildren, including a black and white wedding picture of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, an engagement photograph of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and a studio portrait of the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry in their military uniforms, together with a picture of the Danish Prince Consort.
The first floor room is one of several used by the Queen to meet visiting dignitaries. It is here that she meets prime ministers for their weekly conversations.
The Queen's meeting with Rann and his wife Sasha was one of three audiences she held during the day.
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