A spectacular display of purple and gold flags was unveiled on Regent Street on Tuesday in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation. The huge landmark for the monarch, who was crowned on 2 June 1953 when she was just 27 years old, will take place on Sunday. Preparations are clearly underway as the capital gets ready for several days of festivities, including a special service at Westminster Abbey. Commemorations will centre around the service to be attended by 2000 guests in the Abbey which will be conducted by the Dean of Westminster, who has written a Coronation Anniversary Prayer approved by the Queen herself.
Her Majesty – who will be joined by her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and pregnant Kate Middleton and Prince Harry – will listen to an address by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a reading by Prime Minister David Cameron. It may well be the last public appearance that the Duchess of Cambridge makes before the birth of her baby – due in July – as she had planned to suspend royal duties from mid-June until after the baby’s birth.
Ahead of the celebrations, Londoners and visitors received a wonderful surprise when they arrived in the capital on Tuesday to find the purple flags featuring gold crowns billowing in the breeze. The 189 celebratory flags span the length of Regent Street, which formed part of the procession route during the 1953 Coronation, to St James’s creating a striking backdrop to the world famous shopping hotspot in London’s West End. Following on from the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee last year, which included a river pageant with more than a million people lining the river's wall, a star-studded concert outside Buckingham Palace and various tours across the world by members of the royal family, the commemoration of the Queen's Coronation will be substantially lower key.
The monarch will hold a three-day coronation festival in the gardens of Buckingham Palace in July, which will celebrate the Queen's 60-year reign with a nod to great British traditions. A season of special programming is also scheduled. The nation will be able to relive the moment Elizabeth became queen in a digitally re-mastered broadcast to be aired for the first time on 2 June, as well as enjoy one-off specials presented by Clare Balding and David Dimbleby.