Members of the Household Cavalry lined the Mall in the early hours of Tuesday morning as they took part in the very first rehearsal of the King’s Coronation Procession.
Buckingham Palace was seen illuminated in the the background as large numbers of military personnel on horseback prepared for the important section of the ceremony on May 6.
On the day, King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will make their way back from Westminster Abbey via Parliament Square, along Whitehall, around Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch and down The Mall back to Buckingham Palace.
While there was no sight of them at the rehearsal, the royal couple will be taken to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach and return via the same route in the Gold State Coach.
The procession stretches to just 1.3 miles, which is around a quarter of the length of the late Queen’s five-mile celebratory journey which went through Piccadilly, Oxford Street and Regent Street.
The grand procession in 1953 took two hours and featured tens of thousands of participants, with the two-and-a-half mile cavalcade taking 45 minutes to pass any given point.
The coronation will see the largest military ceremonial operation in 70 years, with more than 6,000 men and women of the UK’s armed forces taking part in the historic royal event.
Sailors, soldiers, and aviators from across the UK and the breadth of the Commonwealth will accompany Charles and Camilla to and from Westminster Abbey for a service where he will be crowned King.
Nearly 400 armed forces personnel from at least 35 Commonwealth countries will also be on parade to mark the historic day.
King Charles’s coronation service at the Abbey was originally planned to last a total of 90 minutes - considerably shorter than the late Queen's coronation in 1956, which lasted for three hours and 20 minutes.
Plans seen by The Mirror now show the service beginning at 11am and finishing at 12.45pm, with the King’s procession setting off from the Abbey back to Buckingham Palace at 1pm.
Charles, 74, will be crowned with the 17th-century St Edward’s Crown, which has been resized for him, before switching to the the lighter Imperial State Crown at the end of the ceremony as per custom.
Queen Consort Camilla, 75, will meanwhile be crowned with the Queen Mary’s Crown and hold the Queen Consort’s Rod with Dove, despite earlier controversy over the historic rod featuring ivory.
Once back at the Palace, the King and Queen Consort will receive a royal salute from the troops on parade, before stepping out on the balcony for an RAF flypast.
