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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Emma Munbodh

The Queen has her own McDonald's branch in the UK - and you can actually visit it

There are certain perks to being the Queen of England - like owning £13billion worth of property, including six royal residences.

Queen Elizabeth II even owns half of the UK's shoreline, all the swans on the River Thames, all of the dolphins in the UK and almost all of Regent Street.

Fascinating right?

The Queen - who is also lucky enough to have two birthdays - even has her own private cash machine in the basement of Buckingham Palace.

It's run by billionaires' bank Coutts and is specifically for members of the royal family.

Her Majesty's Royal Palace also extends to the Tower of London - home to the crown jewels and, by extension, the Tower's famed flock of ravens. In London, she also owns Trafalgar Square - home to Nelson’s Column and the British National Gallery.

In fact, she even owns her own McDonald's branch - nested 80 miles outside of London at the Banbury Gateway Shopping Park, on the edge of Oxfordshire.

The branch - which is open to the public, is fit for a Queen with its leather sofas, digital menu boards, Eames chairs, laminate floors and table service.

And today it reopened - allowing customers to place drive-thru orders from 11am to 10pm.

The retail park also has a branch of Starbucks, along with high street chains such as Marks & Spencer, Next and Primark.

It is not the first time a McDonald's franchise has been on land owned by the Queen. She used to own a branch on the Bath Road Retail Park in Slough, but sold the land for £177million in 2016.

It's all to do with the Crown Estate - which the Queen effectively owns.

The Crown Estate belongs to the reigning monarch 'in right of The Crown' - which is currently Queen Elizabeth II.

It's not private property - it cannot be sold by the monarch, nor do revenues from it belong to the monarch, it's just technically overseen by the royals.

Under the Crown Estate Act of 1961, the estates are managed by a board who have a duty to maintain and enhance their value - as a result, they are often huge tourist attractions.

The terms state that any private landlords and developers must pass on their profits to the Treasury each year - which then dispenses 15% to the monarchy through the Sovereign Grant.

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