Jubilee ends with pageant through London
LONDON - Britain’s four days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne conclude yesterday with a pageant through central London, and with tens of thousands of people expected to take part in nationwide street parties.
Singer Ed Sheeran and more than 100 ‘national treasures’ ranging from former soccer player Gary Lineker to children’s TV puppet Basil Brush joined military bands, performers and dancers in the parade through the capital.
The procession, which followed a similar route the 96-year-old queen took on her coronation day in 1953, was aimed at evoking the different decades of her reign.
For many gathering in central
London under chilly grey skies, the initial conversation revolved around the weather.
Emma Woodhouse, a 21-year-old nanny from the eastern county of Norfolk had arrived on the grand boulevard running up to Buckingham Palace at 5:30am, clutching Union
Jack shower caps just in case. “We’re ready to be here, rain or shine,” she said.
There were also a series of ‘Big Jubilee Lunches’ planned across Britain, with an estimated 16 000 street parties. Some 600 such gatherings were being held across the globe, including in Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan and South Africa.
The queen’s son and heir, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla, attended a Jubilee Lunch at London’s Oval cricket ground. Kate, the wife of Prince William, and their three young children were filmed baking cakes for a lunch in Wales.
The final day of festivities comes after Prince Charles, 73, paid a personal tribute to his mother at a glittering pop concert outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday night.