Decked out in a Union Jack jacket and a red, white and blue rosette with a photo of the Queen on it, Margaret Tyler might easily be crowned Her Majesty’s most loyal subject.
Every inch of her home is covered with royal memorabilia, except for the kitchen – though guess who’s on the tea towels?
Even the outside is decorated with red, white and blue bunting, with a model of a Queen’s Guardsman next to the front door.
Widowed Margaret, 78, started the impressive collection around 40 years ago when she bought a dish with an image of the Queen on it from a fair.
Since then the retired bed-and-breakfast owner has spent thousands of pounds on her hobby – and reckons it’s been worth every penny. She says: “I don’t go on holiday because I get bored very quickly. If there’s not a castle or royals there I’m not interested. This is what I enjoying spending money on. People have even knocked on my door before asking if it’s a museum and what my opening times are.”
Five rooms of her semi-detached house in Wembley, North West London, are filled with everything from slippers shaped like the Queen and Prince Philip tucked in for the night to a large Prince Charles gnome.
There is even a special Diana room, complete with a carpet from the grand Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner in Central London where the Prince and Princess of Wales hosted a party for their staff in 1995. Margaret says: “Charles and Diana walked on this carpet that’s now in my home, which is a strange feeling.
“One of my friends was working at the hotel when it was being refurbished and bought it for me. A lot of people give me items. The only item I think is missing from my collection is something of Diana’s. I’d love a small item of her clothing.”
She has not been slow to snap up some new Platinum Jubilee souvenirs, including a plate costing over £300.
Her children Tracey, 50, Andrew, 41, Julie, 40 and Mark, 39, know what to get for her birthday – gifts have included a mannequin of the Duchess of Cambridge in a replica of her engagement dress.
Despite the huge collection, Margaret claims she would notice if something was in the wrong place.
“I can’t bear the wrong cup being in the wrong section,” she says. “They all have their own sections. It takes me a long time to dust every room, though. By the time I finish it’s time to start all over again!”
As she looks forward to celebrating the Queen’s 70th year on the throne, Margaret has been preparing her Jubilee room, filled floor-to-ceiling with mementoes marking the Queen’s various milestones.
She is planning to attend some of the Jubilee celebrations such as Trooping the Colour and the Platinum Pageant.
Over the years, Margaret has regularly turned up in the early hours for similar events in the hope of seeing the royals, though she draws the line at camping out overnight to grab the best spot.
She has met Diana, the Queen Mother, and more recently Prince Harry and wife Meghan. Margaret has also spoken to her idol the Queen on four separate occasions, but has not told her about her collection.
She says: “For her 80th birthday I made her a cake and gave it to her when it had been frisked by security. I also wrote to the Queen when Prince Philip died, and got a nice message back. She is very kind.”
Margaret, who was nine when the Queen was crowned on June 2, 1953, says it’s the monarch’s sense of duty to the nation that makes her the superfan’s favourite.
She says: “The way she’s looked after us over the years has been fantastic. There’s something magic about her.”
Two charity shop mugs sparked £30k collection...
Standing among porcelain plates and mugs, books and board games, pictures and tea trays, Tajinder Nahar beams with pride.
The royal superfan, 65, has taken 30 years and more than £30,000 to create his collection, which started out of boredom.
“I was 35 and unemployed,” the semi-retired builder, of Hayes, Middlesex, recalls. “I was at home with nothing to do when my then-wife said, ‘Why not start a collection?’
“At first, as she sent me off to the charity shop, I was reluctant. But when I saw two mugs with Queen Elizabeth’s face on them, I just knew. That was the start of everything.”
Tajinder, who moved to the UK from India at 24, says: “Unlike the distant kings and queens I grew up learning about in history class, Queen Elizabeth was right there. You could turn on the TV and see her, or the radio and hear her. She was always so dignified.”
Following the first buys, he says: “I started hunting for items two or three times a week. I’d visit all the charity shops and car boot sales.”
Within months there wasn’t any space in the kitchen. “It started to creep into every room,” he laughs. “I had to start storing some of it under our bed! She is an amazing woman, who has done so much for this country. My collection is a small way to show that.”
Celebrating the Queen also became a family project.
“I’d come home from my shopping trips with all these bags, and I’d rope my three children into helping me sort through them all.”
They soon became used to their dad’s dash into a shop if he spotted royal memorabilia. “I’d rush in and say, ‘How much? Just give it to me!’”
Decades later his children still jokingly take their revenge.
“If I don’t go to the market they will say, ‘Dad you missed so many amazing things,’ to see me panic,” he laughs.
His hobby was also one of the first things he shared with his current partner Jaya Mekban, 61, when they met in 2008. “I don’t think she knew what to say,” he says.
As for the amount he has forked out, he says: “Sometimes I’d spend £100, other times it could be less than £1 on a thimble or a flag.”
In February Tajinder’s daughter wrote to the Palace, inviting the Queen over for tea. What would he say if she did arrive?
“I know if I was standing in front of her, I’d be speechless,” he says.
