As soon as the date of the coronation of King Charles III was announced, I booked a room at Charing Cross Hotel for May 6. That was last October. It would be marvellous, I thought, to be in London for the Coronation and to witness and experience a once in a lifetime historic event.
We had been looking forward to it so much. A real treat. Our plan was to arrive at Charing Cross early on Saturday morning, leave our bag at the hotel, and enter The Mall via Admiralty Arch to find somewhere to stand, perhaps a viewing screen in St James’ Park.
We could then savour the atmosphere and perhaps see something of the procession to Westminster Abbey and the return to Buckingham Palace with the 4,000 personnel participating. Not to mention the horses. I love horses and even to hear them clopping up The Mall would have been thrilling.
The day started well. On the early train to Charing Cross there were lots of happy folk and people dressed up in the national colours and carrying Union Jack flags. As we alighted onto the platform the voices making station announcements were those of King Charles and Queen Camilla. We checked into our hotel and felt very pleased. We then ventured out.
The weather wasn’t good. It was a bit rainy. But we were prepared for that and didn’t mind. The atmosphere of anticipation was almost palpable and everyone was smiling.
I first noticed that standing outside Charing Cross station I couldn’t see the junction to Whitehall or Admiralty Arch. A huge green wall had been built across the Strand. This massive metal wall was lined by police. As we crossed the road we realised this metal wall had been built around the whole area, and all of Trafalgar Square and everywhere was totally sealed off and lines of police all around.
We asked the police where we might access The Mall and they pointed us towards signs and directional arrows towards viewing areas.
We walked and walked, along with 100s of others, at each pause to ask about viewing possibilities we were assured these big green barriers would be opened up. They never were. We were almost at Green Park and there was no possibility of seeing anything.
Some people were getting very frustrated as it was near the time of the procession arriving at Westminster Abbey.
The rain was getting worse and we were in danger of missing everything so we decided to go back to the hotel and watch the TV in the room.
As the newly crowned king and queen were leaving the abbey we thought we’d try again just to get a glimpse somewhere – we were so nearby yet so far. The big green wall was everywhere, as were rows of police. We eventually had to accept we weren’t able to see anything.
The crowd of anti-monarchy protestors were outside the National Gallery. As we walked past we shouted God save the king and other people joined in. That was it.
We managed to console ourselves in the evening and staggered back down the Strand very late. So we had a great time anyway. The best bit was the atmosphere and some absolutely fantastic people we met. I mentioned, in the Coal Hole pub, that I hadn’t seen any soldiers and was immediately surrounded by several all wearing their medals! That was a marvellous and unforgettable moment.
Image Credits: M Ivatts .