Darlinghurst Blog: Retailers: Royalty Prussia Clearance Sale

Dreams of drinking cappuccinos from kitschy china cups with my pal Ruby Molteno at the Royalty Prussia Cafe faded last week when signs appeared on the window announcing the bling furniture emporium was having a clearance sale - was it closing down? 

You may recall my blog post from April where I was brimming with excitement about the impending opening of the Royalty Prussia in-house cafe, which was advertised on its doors:

Well, the cafe never opened and those signs have now been pulled down:

And new ones appeared last week advertising a Clearance Sale in which there are "Millions of $$$ off!" and ''Everything Must Go''. Another sign advises to "Ask For Full Package".

I have learned that the shop is not closing down, just clearing its stock. But the question still remains: was Royalty Prussia ever open? I have walked past the shop in the Chard building on William Street hundreds of time and not once was the door open or anybody inside. 

So I wonder if they will be able to sell all the stock?

The furniture is certainly priced to clear. Take for instance this purple velvet chaise longue (below), which is reduced from $27,000 to $6,500. A saving of 70 per cent!

Or how about this mirrored cabinet, which was once $11,700 and is now $3500: 

I think the only thing Royalty Prussia needs to shift all this furniture is the British chap from the dollar-shop on the Darlinghurst Road strip in Kings Cross who, armed with his thick Pommie accent and a microphone has made a killing in the discount industry in Sydney for about 20 years.

Every time I go by, I walk away with his voice echoing in my head: "Toothbrushes. $2. Mens's socks. Two for $2. Ladies's perfumes. Only $15. Everything must go."

Darlinghurst: Retailers: Royalty Prussia Cafe

My friend Ruby Molteno has been urging me to blog about the Royalty Prussia shop on William Street for some time now. Ruby is strangely fascinated by the Royalty Prussia and I must admit it does hold a peculiar - and very small - space in my heart. I suppose it has something to do with its mysterious provenance and unashamed campness. 

Just how Royalty Prussia came to find a home last year among the traffic and street prostitution on William Street - and why it is not located in its spiritual heartland amongst the wealthy of Double Bay - is the first mystery. The second mystery is who runs the shop. The third mystery is who shops there.

Unashamed campness? Simply walk on by its large floor to ceiling windows and you will understand. Royalty Prussia is like a 24-hour, seven day a week party of gilt-dipped, feather-decked over the top campness. The love child of Liberace and Liza Minnelli. A place where Michael Jackson could drop $20 million on a royal-style carriage for Bubbles the chimp - if he was still alive and lived in Sydney. 

But - and I am ashamed to say - I don't really know the true cost of that carriage, which once took pride of place in Royalty Prussia's crowded, eternally lit window. 

And I must admit, that I have never been inside Royalty Prussia, because just passing by its windows was overwhelming enough. 

But that could all be about to change. 

As my spy in the Darlinghurst flatlands, Ruby has been well positioned to observe the recent movements of tradesmen and tradeswomen at Royalty Prussia and this - as well as the signs plastered on the windows - indicate Royalty Prussia is soon to open The Royalty Prussia Cafe. 

And when this happens, Ruby and I will be first at the bar ordering cappuccinos, which will hopefully come served in an ostentatious teacup and saucer befitting the Royalty Prussia aesthetic. 

Royalty Prussia opened on the ground floor of the historic 1926 Chard Building, at 171 William Street, in May last year. It is owned by Isreali-born Galita Yoshia, who as this Sydney Morning Herald article suggests (third item down), is rather fond of retaining the mysterious origins of Royalty Prussia.
Royalty Prussia has not just one, but two websites: one with a .com address, the other with a .com.au address. The two sites are identical and advertise Royalty Prussia's specialty of building and manufacturing exterior and interior designs for ''Luxury Homes, Palaces, Hotels, Yachts and Jets''. 

According to the website Royalty Prussia specialises in ''European-Aristocratic designs with the purpose of reliving the splendour of old times''.

''Our design is influenced by the lives and palatial surroundings of European royalty,'' the website says.

''Our work in art and architecture holds historical value, which today signifies prosperity and affluence.''

Which doesn't explain why they set up shop on the grungy William Street strip. 

And rather than using their website to promote their Darlinghurst showroom - their only showroom as far as I can tell - they instead decorate each web page with that old perfume-advertisement marketing trick:

''Paris. London. Moscow. Monte Carlo. New York. Dubai.''

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to that cappuccino.

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Royalty Prussia

171 William Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9357 5335

www.royaltyprussia.com.au

www.royaltyprussia.com