Final lick and polish ahead of Britain’s big bash
As London warms up for the first royal coronation since 1953, polls taking the pulse of feelings towards the monarchy have delivered mostly good news for King Charles.
At Westminster Abbey, painters on scaffolds are putting the final touches of gold paint to the gate through which King Charles III will walk for his coronation.
Outside Buckingham Palace, the last pieces of makeshift grandstands are being nailed down and the tents that will house the world’s television anchors are being erected.
The mall leading from the palace to the abbey, along which Charles will ride in his gold coach alongside his queen, Camilla, on Saturday is now lined with a sea of Union Jacks, a lone Australian flag prominent among them.
London, indeed all of Britain, is warming up for its biggest bash, the first royal coronation since 1953.
This has involved rehearsals in the dead of night, as more than 7000 personnel practised the procession march to and from Westminster Abbey, giving night owls a glimpse of the pomp and pageantry that awaits.
It hasn’t been trouble-free. The grounds outside Buckingham Palace were briefly closed when a man threw shotgun cartridges into them.
A knife was found in his bag and the man was also carrying a “suspicious bag” that was destroyed in a controlled explosion. Police said the incident was not terrorism-related but a mental health issue.
As interest builds across the country, media outlets are grabbing on to any angle they can find to talk about it. “Will Kate ditch tiara for flowers in her hair?” asks the Daily Express, saying such a move would be a let-down for traditionalists but a nod to Charles’ love of nature and the environment.
The Daily Telegraph devotes a lift-out on what to wear for the coronation under the headline How to look patriotic without going the full Geri Halliwell, a reference to the former Spice Girl singer’s famous Union Jack dress.
Ahead of the coronation, a raft of polls are taking the pulse of Brits about their feelings towards the monarchy and their soon-to-be-crowned king.
Luckily for Charles, the news is mostly good. A poll in the UK shows that Charles is becoming more popular, with 62 per cent of people believing he will be good for the monarchy.
This is a steep rise from the 39 per cent recorded in March. At the same time, those who think he will be a bad king have fallen from 39 per cent to 20 per cent.
“I don’t think there will ever be anyone like our queen because she was there for so long,” Denise Valentine says as she stands outside Westminster Abbey with her three dogs in a pram.
Valentine says she was once hostile to Charles because of his poor treatment of former wife Princess Diana but now thinks he has improved and deserves to be crowned king.
“Whatever you think of Charlie boy - and I have my views about Diana - you cannot take it away from him (that) he does wonderful work for charity,’ she says.
Charles has proved himself well since the queen died and he has handled the controversy over silly Harry very well. The coronation will be absolutely marvellous and the world envies it.”
Another poll on the eve of the coronation found that 69 per cent of Britons thought the country would vote to keep the monarchy if a referendum took place tomorrow, but it found 73 per cent agreed that the royal family needed to modernise to have any chance of surviving.
In the popularity stakes, the late Queen Elizabeth remains the most popular royal with 76 per cent viewing her favourably, followed by 64 per cent for Prince William, with Charles at 54 per cent. The poll suggests that Camilla still divides people, with just 39 per cent viewing her favourably, while the bottom three royals were Prince Harry on 22 per cent, his American wife, Meghan Markle, on 18 per cent and the disgraced Prince Andrew on 7 per cent.
Britain is gearing up for a boozy coronation, with the British Beer and Pub Association estimating that 62 million pints of beer will be pulled across the country, almost one pint for each person.
Many of those who can’t come to London are planning street parties in their own suburbs or towns. More than 3000 street parties are planned over the coronation weekend, with English councils approving 3087 road closures for the royal event.
In London, the coronation and its procession route will be subject to the same exhaustive security as was put in place for the queen’s funeral in September last year. The security operation, known as Golden Orb, will see hundreds of uniformed and plain-clothed police watching crowds along the procession route, with snipers positioned on rooftops.
Australian Victoria Cross winner Dan Keighran will be among those taking part in the official proceedings as a member of the Guard of Chivalry.
“It’s an extraordinary opportunity to represent Australia,” he said in London. “I’ll be wearing that slouch hat with pride.”
