The Prince of Wales said he is making sure his children are learning to play instruments because music is “crucial”. But the heir to the throne turned down the opportunity to play the drums on a visit to a music charity, saying his son Prince Louis would have done if he had been there. Asked by 16-year-old Django Brooke whether he wanted to play, Prince William laughed and replied:  “I’m definitely not a drummer. I’m happy to see you do it, if my youngest was here, he’d have a go, because he’s practicing at the moment, but I’d love to hear you do it. But thank you for asking.”

William popped into the music studio during a visit to The Oasis Village in Tulse Hill, south London, where he was hearing more about the work of Spiral Skills, a youth organisation in Lambeth, which has expanded its services in the community hub thanks to a grant from his Homewards Fund. Applauding after hearing Django perform, he said, laughing, “And that’s why you play, and I don’t!”

The Prince told the young musicians taking part in a workshop, “It’s brilliant you guys have clearly done a lot of practising, well done, that’s not easy doing that in front of everyone – that’s brilliant. You’ve all got amazing rhythm and it sounds fantastic, I wish I started when I was your age. I couldn’t read music so that was biggest weakness, I started off playing piano, trumpet and the drums and then realised I had to memorise every tune and it just fell away.

“I make sure my children learn music because I love music and it’s crucial, really important.” Prince George plays guitar, Princess Charlotte plays piano and Prince Louis plays drums, but Symphony Studios founder Seth Pinnock said of William: “He said he couldn’t play drums well. He said he had learned drums and learned keyboards but couldn’t read it… But his children are learning to play keys, so hopefully his kids will come here one day and learn.”

Symphony Studios joined the hub last October after former Gospel star Seth spent nine months sofa-surfing after coming out as a gay man. “We lost everything. I had a big charity and I was running around the UK and Europe touring. I came from a pretty conservative Christian background so coming out meant losing quite a bit. I became homeless for about nine months and then this place turned me in. I was able to rebuild the charity here and moved in on-site.”

Symphony Studios now serves hundreds of young people with free music tuition each year, despite having lost two-thirds of its funding after Seth came out. Seth, who now lives in a flat above the Oasis Village’s main building, which was formerly a girls’ school. He said of the Prince: “It’s really important for him to shine a light on quite marginalised communities that need a sense of hope and possibility.”

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Homewards’ positive impact

Homewards provided an undisclosed sum to enable Spiral Skills to refurbish areas of the former school – now a multi-agency hub – and expand their services to reach more young people. During his visit, William paused to look at a photograph of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, who opened the landmark building as school, St Martin’s in the Fields, back in 1999.

He was also shown cameras and other equipment Spiral Skills members can access at the neighbouring youth-owned and run creative agency Young Creators UK. He was joined by Homewards Advocate and former England footballer Fara Williams and sat with Abdoul and another community Changemaker, Jhemar Jonas, 23, all of whom have lived experience of homelessness.

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Speaking afterwards, Fara said of the Prince: “Growing up as a young person, seeing the work that his Mum did for different charities was so empowering. And for him to follow in her footsteps and continue the great work, and do it his own way and be supportive, and knowledgeable about all these different areas of homelessness is great. He does have the power, he does have the funding that can help make the changes that we need.”

William also chatted to Chloe Fernandez, a former pupil of the school where the hub is now housed, who was referred from Spiral Skills into YCUK after being made redundant last year. She said: “The future King [is] actually already putting in those little seeds with young people instead of having someone else tell him. And him coming and seeing it himself shows his humanity.”