This Coronation Could Very Well Be The Last Of Its Kind

In less than a year, London will have hosted three major royal events, each with its own distinctive mood and theatre. But the one with greatest historic meaning and magnificence will be the coronation of King Charles III tomorrow. That’s why, even if you were to argue that the city, the British public and aficionados of pageantry the world over have become blasé about such occasions, you would be wrong.

- MARY DEJEVSKY

I have the privilege, and at times such as these the massive headache, of living just a short distance from Westminster Abbey and St James’s Park. When I walked down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace early in the week, there were people already camped out in prime positions, not just securing their spot but advertising their allegiance. There was a group from Wales with huge national flags fixed to crowd barriers, a group from the United States, stars and stripes similarly announcing their provenance, and a good dozen or more clusters of people from other parts of England tending to their tiny tents.

Simply walking around, as I have done practically every day this week, has afforded glimpses of the scale of the planning of such events; of how everything has to be assembled methodically, piece by piece, until it all slots into place.

The Union flags lining the Mall and the Commonwealth flags lining Horse Guards Avenue have been up for weeks. Marquees have sprouted. The reception area for dignitaries from around the world will be where those who joined the queue for the Queen’s lying in state reached the final security checks.

There is also a huge stand that will accommodate the world’s media and their cameras directly opposite the Abbey. With its solid construction, unusually elegant design and speedy assembly, the stand might even tempt Michael Gove to consider it as a template for the housing the capital so badly needs.

And this slick contraption points to one of so many contradictions: the collision of the old and the new. Charles III’s coronation is the formal start of the post-Elizabethan age. It heralds at once the possibility of a new tone and new priorities, but it also confirms the continuity of the institution and the established order.