His Majesty King Charles and the Queen Consort will be visiting Greater Manchester today.
In his first visit to the region since ascending the throne, King Charles will be visiting Bolton Town Hall on Friday, January 20, to join in a reception where he will meet with representatives from the local community. The town hall visit will also be attended by the mayor of Bolton, Akhtar Zaman, and local MPs.
A performance from the Polonez folk dance group will also take place, with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Manchester, Michal Mazurek, also in attendance. Following this, the King and Queen Consort will join a reception which will feature representatives from Bolton's Interfaith Council and Solidarity Community Association - the King has previously indicated his duty to protect religious diversity in the UK.
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The King will also meet with Bolton Asian Elders, Bolton Holiday Activities and Food Programme, young and adult carers from the community, AFC Masters, Fortalice, Bolton's Polish community, and the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. Charles is also expected to be presented with the town hall key and unveil a plaque commemorating the visit.
Bolton Town Hall has a long and historic relationship with those previously holding the title of Prince of Wales. In 1873 when the future King Edward VII was prince, he opened the town hall with over 150,000 locals reportedly turning up.
While he was still the Prince of Wales, King Charles visited Greater Manchester on numerous occasions, sometimes alone and other times with his wife Camilla. On one occasion in 1997 he met up with the Spice Girls, while in December 2000 he attended the legendary set of Coronation Street.
One of Charles' and Camilla's other notable visits was in the wake of the 2017 Manchester terrorist attack.
Friday's visit to Greater Manchester will be the King's second public engagement since the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare hit the shops earlier this month. Tipped by industry experts to be one of the year’s biggest-selling books, it contains a series of revelations about royal life.
According to the publisher, the English language edition of Spare sold more than 1,430,000 units in all formats and editions in the United States, Canada and the UK on January 10 when it first hit bookshop shelves.
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