LONDON — Maria Scott secured her place at the front of the coronation parade route on Sunday, nearly a week before the actual event. The 52-year-old came to London from her native Newcastle in Northern England to join 10 fellow royalists at a makeshift camp on the Mall, the wide boulevard that stretches east from Buckingham Palace toward Whitehall.
“I love the pageantry, I love watching the parades, and I think the world of our king,” said Ms. Scott from the lawn chair where she is waiting, surrounded by bags of food and warm clothing until Saturday’s coronation — the first of an English monarch in 70 years.
The edges of a giant tarp mark out the friends’ prime position, carefully chosen so that trees will not obscure their view. Camping cots have been set up, and they have a key for the porta potty in nearby St. James’s Park.
They are well prepared — and very excited.
“This is historic. The atmosphere is going to be wonderful,” said Ms. Scott. She predicts vast crowds will come to watch King Charles and Queen Camilla travel in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, where both will be crowned.
They will still be watching when the royal party returns to the palace along the same route, this time in the famously uncomfortable Gold State Coach used at every coronation for the past 180 years.
Security barriers and queuing systems set up along the way suggest the police are also anticipating a large turnout. But whether the crowds will be made up mostly of enthusiastic Britons or of curious tourists remains to be seen.
The coronation comes amidst deepening economic gloom in the UK. The Cost of Living Crisis, as it is known, has seen inflation reach 40-year highs. A wave of strikes by workers demanding higher wages has hit public services from schools, to hospitals, to mail delivery, to the border force. Transportation walkouts have shut down rail services, sometimes for days on end.
At the same time, the UK is wrestling with the economic and political consequences of leaving the European Union. “Brexit” left the country divided and contributed to the rapid turnover in prime ministers: four since 2019.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that opinion polls indicate less than half of Britons have any interest in the coronation. They have other, more pressing issues to worry about.
They are also still making up their minds about their new king. Charles has inherited the crown from a popular, long-serving monarch at a time not just of economic instability but of turbulence in the royal family itself.
Prince Andrew, the king’s brother, was banished from royal duties following a sexual assault scandal connected to his former friend, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Harry, the king’s second son, has removed himself from royal circles — and from the UK. From his home in California, he and wife Meghan have become vocal critics of the royal family. (The prince will attend the coronation but his wife will not).
Wisely, then, given the national mood, King Charles has slimmed down the coronation in favor of a less grandiose, more inclusive event.
It will still take place in Westminster Abbey, where coronations were first held in 1066. The king will sit in the ancient oak wood St. Edward’s chair as his predecessors have. And, as is tradition, he will be screened off from public view for the “unction” — the point in the ceremony at which he is anointed with holy oils.
In the past, those oils have included the products of civet glands and whale intestines. But, in a nod to the king’s environmental interests, those used on Saturday will be animal-free.
Other more obvious breaks with tradition concern size and scale.
In 1953, Queen Elizabeth was crowned in front of a congregation of more than 8,000. King Charles will have only 2,000 guests.
They will include many members of foreign royal families. First Lady Jill Biden will represent the United States. But the number of lords and lawmakers has been cut right back. About 850 community representatives recognized for their charity work will take their places instead.
At two hours long, the ceremony they witness will be half the length of the one in which the late queen was crowned. And it is expected that, rather than the breeches and silks worn by his predecessors, King Charles will wear a military uniform under his coronation robes.
Out amongst the crowds, Maria Scott and her royalist friends will most likely watch the ceremony on their phones while they wait for the procession to return.
Their devotion to their new king is unstinting but the wider British public remains to be convinced. A cautiously updated coronation may help to smooth the transition for the UK’s first new monarch in 70 years.
Claire Bolderson is a freelance writer based in London.
First Published: May 4, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 4, 2023, 5:36 p.m.
