Under the influence

HRH the Prince of Wales’s two charities bearing his name rightly enjoy wide approval. Yet their work and the distinction between them is less than clear. The Prince’s Foundation, a remarkably influential minnow, its turnover around £3 million, promotes improvement in the quality of urban life, the regeneration of cities and the teaching of traditional skills, some Islamic in origin. With human values in mind, it also plays a positive role in changing attitudes to education and the environment, many of the Prince’s crusades now finding wide acceptance. Less complex, the Prince’s Trust, with an impressive turnover of some £30 million and over 11,000 volunteers, offers support to disadvantaged young people in need of special help in education, training and business development.

Appropriately, the disparate parts of the Foundation, some dating back to the 1980s, when the Prince was personally involved in architectural controversies, have been brought together in an efficiently rebuilt Charlotte Road warehouse in the regeneration area of Shoreditch.