The Prince of Wales has spent a busy day travelling around South East London for a number of engagements, as he told regulars in the Prince of Peckham that he "grew up in pubs"16:14, 03 Jun 2026Updated 16:28, 03 Jun 2026Prince William has vowed to protect Britain's pubs during a trip to Peckham, where he pulled pints and chatted with regulars.‌The Prince of Wales had a busy day of back-to-back engagements in South East London today, as he stopped in at the Prince of Peckham pub between a trip to a community charity and a visit to Shoreditch to visit the Diana Award. After arriving at the pub and speaking with the owner, Clem Ogbonnaya, the future king said the nation's pubs are “so important” and “a place for the community to come together”, and are in need of our protection.‌Speaking at the Prince of Peckham, William pledged: “I love pubs. I want to do as much as I can to support pubs because I love the community. We need to protect our pubs.”‌The 43-year-old said that Britain’s public houses act as “the glue and fabric” in a community, adding: “It’s the people – the team – around a pub that make it.” Speaking about the owner of the recently renovated pub, he added: “It’s a family business which is good, because that makes the pub.”William surprised residents who were attending the pub’s weekly breakfast club, Chatty Patty, with meeting aiming to tackle loneliness. The Prince told the group that he “grew up in pubs” and has previously described them as “crucial” for human contact.‌During the visit, he pulled a pint of Red Stripe with Mr Ogbonnaya, describing his own efforts as “really good” and receiving a round of applause. He joked Mr Ogbonnaya was “just as bad as me” and the pair laughed and bumped shoulders after their efforts.William was proud of his pint-pulling prowess, with his skills clearly improving since 2023, when he poured a terrible pint during a visit to the Dog and Duck pub in Soho alongside the Princess of Wales. In footage that may well leave some beer lovers feeling a little under the weather, the prince could be seen attempting to pour the perfect pint as a smiling Kate looked on.‌A voice off-camera could be heard saying that it was "expertly done", but William didn't appear too sure as he admired his handiwork, sarcastically replying "oh really?" to the amusement of others. The prince then deadpanned: "I'm not too bad at drinking pints", adding that pulling pints was another matter.While in Peckham today, Prince William also tried the jerk chicken with plantain, which he said “blew my mind”. He said: “I’m hoping they’ll Deliveroo this jerk chicken to Windsor."‌William started his day in Peckham with a visit to PECAN, a longstanding community charity based in the area dedicated to addressing poverty and food insecurity, while supporting vulnerable residents. William met with staff, volunteers and the people they help, as he heard how services such as the Southwark Foodbank, employment support and social supermarket provision continue to make a vital difference.While there, he spoke about how the 24-hour news cycle and mobile phone use are partially to blame for driving rising depression and loneliness. He said: “With everyone’s phones now you can get so much news, that actually it completely overwhelms you in terms of being able to process this and that.“And unfortunately most of the time we hear bad stuff, so you can reinforce someone into the bad place and depression. You reinforce innocently [just] looking at your phone and the news so I can see that it's overwhelming when you feel like it’s just negativity all the time.”‌During the visit, he met with staff members, volunteers and Pecan clients - many of whom have escaped homelessness and poverty through the community charity’s services. After hearing from Stella, who told him how she was sleeping on the streets before the Pecan team found her in 2017, William said: “It’s amazing what you guys do, it puts people’s lives back on track again.”The Prince added: “This feels like a very happy family. But that family point and that caring is so important at the moment - it’s the magic ingredient of a really good charity. It’s a hard dynamic to get that right, but when you do get it right it’s gold dust.”‌Outside the charity on the streets of Peckham, royal fans gathered to catch a glimpse of the future king. Two such people were Zoë Heimann and Cissy Dalladay, who work at the nearby Bara Café - which specialises in Welsh food. Cissy told the Mirror that she and Zoë had a chat with the Prince of Wales, who was intrigued by the Welsh café.Cissy told the Mirror: "He was asking about our Bara brith, which is a traditional Welsh cake and he wanted to try it so he took a piece home with him."Zoë added that the prince was "Very normal and very nice", saying they were "taken a bit by surprise" by William's visit. Zoe also said that his visit to Peckham will no doubt highlight the community and their tireless charity work.‌"It's always nice for small and independent businesses to get a bit of love from someone as important as Prince William, it makes us feel very seen."‌During William's visit to Pecan, he also discussed his and the Princess of Wales’s donation to the local Southwark Foodbank, operated by the charity just off Peckham High Street, after it was robbed in September 2024. The couple donated to help replenish stock after £3,000 of food and hygiene products were taken, as well as a laptop.Speaking about the incident on Wednesday, William said: “I was reading all the stories about it and…I was trying to picture where you were and how that all happened because we were looking for a while to try and see how we could help and your article came across my phone and I was like ‘okay’.”Afterwards, the future king made his way to the Prince of Peckham pub, before closing out the busy day with a visit to The Diana Award, who are this year’s charity partner of the SXSW London Festival in Shoreditch.‌William’s day of back-to-back engagements comes after the Princess of Wales made a sweet comment about her husband during an event at St James’ Palace. Princess Kate joined the King and Queen at the London royal residence to celebrate the crucial work of Cancer Research UK.‌As the future queen mingled with attendees, Kate spoke with Irish pop star Ronan Keating and his wife Storm about her own cancer journey, when she made a sweet comment about her husband Prince William, who was not present at the event.Ronan could be overheard saying to Kate: "Please say hi to William". His wife, Storm Keating, added "he's such a gent", before Ronan said: "Yeah we love him".The royal mother-of-three, who was wearing a red heart-print dress made them both laugh when she replied: "So do I!"Article continues below