Claudia Sacrest
London (EFE) The Mall, the avenue that goes from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square.
Now flanked by Union Jack and Commonwealth flags, this iconic pink-paved promenade is one of the most coveted positions for those who want to admire the kings, as this is where they will start their journey to Westminster Abbey (round trip). return), forcing the masses to gather in two brief kilometers instead of the eight of Elizabeth II in 1953.
Among the royal fans who have already marked their spot is Grace Gothard, who wanted to witness the coronation parade rehearsal in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, led by Charles III and Prince William along with troops and other members of the British royal family.
“We decided to take a nap on the grass, how cold!” Gothard exclaimed into the EFE microphone, while describing the wait in the middle of the night in St James’s park. “Later we had rehearsal, so we got up and watched them. It was very nice. The carriage is beautiful, ”he pointed out, in front of some life-size portraits of Carlos and Camila.
Next door, Lucy Edwards has just set up her shop to give “all the support” to Carlos III, convinced that “he will do the best he can”, despite having “a lot of weight on his shoulders to live up to his mother”.
Edwards, a caregiver for the elderly in Bristol, hasn’t missed a royal event since the wedding of Prince William and Catherine, and has taken advantage of the fact that her night shifts at work are over to camp out until the end of the week.
“I saw people already coming to The Mall to get ready, so I want to be here to soak up the atmosphere. I cannot sit at home knowing that I could be here ”, she tells EFE, happy to be with her friends, with whom she already camped during the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II last June.
Equipped with wipes, food, sleeping bags and public bathrooms a few meters away where you can wash up, Edwards predicts a stay “not as basic as camping in the mountains” although “not as pleasant as a hotel either”.
Many tourists stop to ask them why they spend their free time sleeping amid the hustle and bustle of the security fences, something that Edwards does not hesitate to attribute to the lack of cultural references.
“In the rest of the world they may not have events like this and obviously don’t understand the enormity of this,” he argues. I think until you see the event on Saturday, you can’t imagine how great it will be.
Murals and canopies
The final stretch of the preparations goes beyond the epicenter of Westminster Abbey, where the coronation will be held before 2,200 guests – 6,000 less than that of Elizabeth II.
There is no corner in the capital where the event is not mentioned, either because the special coronation quiche (with spinach, broad beans and tarragon) is promoted on the menu or because there are shortbread cookies in the supermarket for the occasion .
In front of the popular John Lewis shopping center, travelers waiting for the bus have no choice but to do so under a giant crown canopy, while shop windows display portraits and tableware dedicated to the new monarch.
The event is also remembered by a decorated Covent Garden market, a King Carlos III made with 73,412 Lego pieces in the emblematic Hamleys toy store or facades such as the Dorchester Hotel, next to Hyde Park, which has recreated the original decoration that he designed 70 years ago Oliver Messel for the coronation of Elizabeth II.
The festive atmosphere extends to the outskirts of the capital, such as in the Hounslow district (west), where the young Indian artist Yash Patel, mounted on a crane, paints a large portrait of the king on a wall.
“The reason why we celebrate and make this mural is that the king is the head of the Commonwealth, here we are all from a Commonwealth country,” Jignesh Patel, co-author of the mural and also from India, told EFE.
At the foot of the crane, other residents armed with brushes give color to the 54 flags that, from the lower part of the mural, reflect one of the challenges that Carlos III faces in his new reign: that of keeping the Commonwealth of Nations together and , in turn, combat the legacy of slavery and colonialism on which it is based.