As the May 6 coronation date for King Charles approaches, new details are emerging about the event.
Sources report that the procession after the ceremony will be significantly shorter than the one for his mother’s coronation in 1953.
The newly crowned King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will travel back from Westminster Abbey along a route that many royal occasions have used.
They will go through Parliament Square, along Whitehall, around Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch, and down The Mall back to Buckingham Palace.
The route will be the reverse of their journey to the Abbey, but much shorter than the 8km return expedition Queen Elizabeth II made around central London, during which the 27-year-old monarch waved to crowds along Piccadilly, Oxford Street, and Regent Street.
Sources say that they chose the shorter route for practical reasons and familiarity of the journey.
The coaches: Gold State v Diamond Jubilee
During their coronation procession back to Buckingham Palace, the newly crowned King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will use the historic Gold State Coach, which is over 260 years old.
Martin Oates, senior carriage restorer at the Royal Mews, will walk behind the four-tonne carriage in the procession and act as the “brake man”, pulling the hand-held T-bar at the back to secure it in place when it stops.
Despite the coach’s reputation for being uncomfortable, Mr Oates said it now ran much more smoothly than it used to.
He said the four original leather straps that supported the body of the Gold State Coach were replaced 15 years ago.
“When you’re following it, you can hear it creaking so it sounds like an old galleon going along,” Mr Oates said.
“It’s not quite a washing machine but where other vehicles just go from back to front, this is moving from side to side.”
Only a sovereign and their consort can travel in the historic coach, which has seen use in every coronation since 1831.
But even Queen Elizabeth II once described her journey to and from the coronation in the bumpy coach as “horrible”.
Many monarchs have criticized the carriage for being uncomfortable. King William IV, also known as the Sailor King, compared it to “being aboard a ship tossing in a rough sea.”
Queen Victoria complained of its “distressing oscillation”.
The Diamond Jubilee State Coach — in which King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will ride to their coronation — has shock absorbers on it and is much like a car, Mr Oates said.
