Twenty years on, Diana's legacy still remembered

Record ID: 907402

  • Title: Twenty years on, Diana's legacy still remembered
  • Date: 22nd August 2017
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAFE DIANA OWNER, ABDUL DAOUD, SAYING: "I opened the shop on the 6th of January 1989. Three weeks later, almost, she surprisingly visited me and said 'I'm going to say good morning'. I said 'good morning your Highness'. The question is, why call it Cafe Diana? I told her, because of you, I'm very fond of you, very fond of your work. And then she smiled and she was very happy." DAOUD CHATTING TO CUSTOMERS PATRONS EATING INSIDE CAFE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAFE DIANA OWNER, ABDUL DAOUD, SAYING: "People loved her. People loved her always. They remember her coming. Passing by, they smile to the picture, they see things and they say oh, this is where Princess Diana used to come. It's ironic that in her death she makes people smile." LETTER FROM DIANA TO DAOUD CAFE DIANA SIGN
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2017 18:14
  • Keywords: 20th Anniversary tributes legacy Paris Britain Royals Cafe Diana Death mourners Kensington Palace flowers Princess Diana Car Crash
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK / LAHORE, PAKISTAN / LUANDA, ANGOLA
  • City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK / LAHORE, PAKISTAN / LUANDA, ANGOLA
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Royals
  • Reuters ID: LVA0056VE8NRB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Abdul Daoud spilt most of the cappuccino into the saucer the first time he served Princess Diana, his nerves getting the better of him.
    Almost 20 years on since she was tragically killed when her car crashed in a Paris tunnel, he still works surrounded by pictures of the woman he named his cafe after.
    "I opened the shop on the 6th of January 1989. Three weeks later, almost, she surprisingly visited me and said 'I'm going to say good morning'. I said 'good morning your Highness'. The question is, why call it Cafe Diana? I told her, because of you, I'm very fond of you, very fond of your work. And then she smiled and she was very happy," Daoud said.
    His cafe is near London's Kensington Gardens, home to the palace where Diana lived. It's popular with both tourists and locals and the menu offers Diana salads and Diana burgers.
    For Daoud, marking her death anniversary will be business as usual at the cafe. He does not believe she will ever be forgotten.
    Yet many younger Britons feel differently about the princess.
    "I think she maybe meant more to my mother," said Stephen Butler in the west London area where Diana lived. "Certainly when she died, I remember my mother kind of shaking me awake, and was being quite devastated about it, and I still remember that outpouring of grief. But for me, not so much, I would say."
    Diana, whose struggles to fit into the royal household played out in the full glare of the media, was renowned for her charity work. It is this legacy that is most remembered, even by students like Shermine Grigorius, who described the princess as a "symbol of kindness".
    While the royals have always been dutifully charitable, Diana was known for going beyond her in-laws, or even any celebrity at the time, in her philanthropy.
    Whether in charity work or in royal life, she earned a reputation for being a rebel who defied convention: from campaigning for a worldwide ban on landmines despite opposition from the British government, to flouting royal protocol to speak candidly about her experiences with bulimia and infidelity.
    At the Da Mario restaurant in Kensington, owner Marco Molino and patrons who dined there when Diana visited, described her as down to earth and friendly. Ronald van Bronkhorst, who has lived above Da Mario since the 1970s, said the royal never made flashy entrances when she came to eat.
    "The legacy will never leave. She's still the mother of our future king. She is still known as the princess of hearts. She will still be known for the work that she's done for all her charities, the aids charities, the Terrence Higgins Trust, the landmines. That will never be forgotten," he said.
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