Windsor gearing up for Royal wedding
FEW towns are as quintessentially English as Windsor, the bucolic riverside locale where Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle will get married on Saturday.
And few towns are as pleasing when a warm spring sun bakes off the morning mist.
All roads seem to lead to Windsor Castle, a magnificent fortress perched high on a hill topped by the royal standard when the queen is in residence. It is here – a favoured royal playground since William the Conqueror built the first structure in 1070 – that the royal wedding will take place.
Harry, one of the least traditional young royals, has chosen the most traditional of venues. Fevered preparations are under way: many roads have been repaved, street signs are being repainted, store fronts are decked out with life-size cut-outs of Harry and Markle, and shoppers are being lured by souvenirs of all kinds.
Windsor is getting a bit of a makeover, just like the monarchy, which is re-branding itself with attention focused on the new, younger generation of princes as the 92-year-old queen slowly reduces her public duties.
“Everything is now in place, we’re 99.9% of the way there,” said town councillor Phillip Bicknell, who expects more than 100 000 people on the royal wedding day if the weather is good.
There’s already a party feel in Windsor well in advance of the actual party. Tourists from around the world arrive daily by train and walk through the royal shopping arcade to the castle.
The royal wedding itself is a party on a grand scale, with 600 guests invited to the ceremony in St George’s Chapel, another 2 640 invited to the castle’s grounds, and tens of thousands more expected to throng the town’s narrow streets hoping for a glimpse of the newlyweds.
Security barriers are being put in place, and an elaborate police deployment plan has been mapped out. It’s fairly easy to establish a secure perimeter around the castle grounds, and a no-fly, no-drone zone will be enforced to keep the airspace clear. Still, Harry and Meghan are determined to ride outside the castle in an open horsedrawn carriage, which calls for extra protective measures.
Police are using an automatic licence plate recognition system to flag any known suspicious vehicles. Many roads into the town centre will be blocked off to lessen the chances of a vehicle attack on the huge crowds expected at the foot of the castle.
Police with automatic weapons can already be seen on the streets of Windsor, a jarring fact reflecting that Britain’s official terrorism threat level is set at “severe”, indicating an attack is judged highly likely.
Before the spate of extremist attacks on Britain last year, it was common to see some royals in the streets, and in the park surrounding the town. That happens less frequently now. “You’ll see them about now and again,” says Dean Wright, an artist at the Rogue Tattoo Windsor studio.
Wright has had a surge in demand for tattoos with traditional British themes: the castle, the crown, the London skyline. “The wedding will make us busier for sure,” he said of Windsor’s business community. “It will definitely bring more people in. Everyone wants to get involved.”