What is Charles III’s “Coronation Procession” and how is it different from ‘The King’s Procession”?

The eyes of the world will be on London and Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May as the official coronation of Charles III as King of the United Kingdom takes place, the first such ceremony on British soil in 70 years.

Charles III’s coronation a three-day event

The event will actually be held over three days, with the ‘Coronation Concert’ being staged at royal residence Windsor Castle and broadcast by the BBC on Sunday 7 May, along with ‘Coronation Big Lunches’ which have been organised in neighbourhoods and communities across the UK.

The following day, meanwhile, ‘The Big Help Out’ will be held, a project “encouraging people to try volunteering for themselves and join the work being undertaken to support their local areas” with the aim of “using volunteering to bring communities together and create a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation Weekend”, according to the Royal Family themselves.

But Saturday is the ‘big one’ and the coronation itself, which see the The King and The Queen Consort, along with other Members of the Royal Final, end the day by greeting the public from the balcony at Buckingham Palace, following The Coronation Service, which will take place at Westminster Abbey, and not one, but two, processions. That’s right, there will be two processions for the (exorbitant) price of one on Saturday.

What and when is The King’s Procession?

The King’s Procession will take place before the Coronation Service and will see King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla make their way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in time for the ceremony, which begins at 11:00 a.m. UK time (6:00 a.m. ET). They will travel in the horse-drawn Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which was commissioned to celebrate 60 years of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in 2012.

The trip is expected to take around 40 minutes and, for those of you familiar with the streets of London, will pass through The Mall, Admiralty Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street and Parliament Street before arriving at Westminster Abbey via Broad Sanctuary. 1,000 members of the British military (Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force) will line the route, which covers 1.42 miles.

What and when is The Coronation Procession?

The Coronation Procession will, inevitably, come after the service, and is expected to begin at around 1:00 p.m. (8:00 a.m. ET) provided everything runs on time. The day’s second procession will be much grander in scale and more ceremonial, with Armed Forces from across the Commonwealth and the British Overseas Territories, and all Services of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, alongside The Sovereign’s Bodyguard and Royal Watermen, who will perform ceremonial duties, among those involved.

The King and Queen Consort will return to Buckingham Place on the same route in reverse in the Gold State Coach, which will be pulled at walking pace by eight Windsor Grey horses and was first used by King George III in 1762.