This is the spectacle every London visitor has to see at least once: stone-faced, bearskin-hatted guards changing posts with much fanfare, accompanied by a brass band. This is also where you’ll see nearly every tourist in London gathered in one place at the same time. Add to it that this is right after the Jubilee celebration from the night before… and it was an interesting experience.
The most famous part takes place right in front of Buckingham Palace at 11 AM. But before and after that, over the course of about an hour, several guard-changing ceremonies and parades converge within a few hundred yards of Buckingham Palace in a perfect storm of red-coated pageantry, more or less simultaneously.
Most tourists just show up near the palace gate and get lost in the crowds, but this year you had to be a bit savvy… the gate area was closed due to the stands set up for the jubilee. But with the help of saint Rick, we were able to catch a satisfying glimpse from less crowded locations with much less wait than if you station yourself at the palace gate. We started with a nice stroll thru St. James Park heading to our first pre-ceremony stop – St. James Palace.
Above is St. James Palace. We showed up here at around 10:30 AM. It is here that the soon-to-be-off duty guards mobilizing in the courtyard. We grabbed a spot across the street within the growing crowd of tourist (led mostly by tour guides) to watch the inspection.
Just before they prepare to leave (which happens at 10:43), we left and walked ahead of them down Marlborough Road to the Mall. We paused just down the Mall road toward the palace to watch them parade past with a band as well, on their way to Buckingham Palace.
Check out this video – a bit more than 10 minutes – of the guard coming out from St. James Palace, who are then joined by a band and guard walking past on their way to the palace. We then cut through the park and head to the Wellington Barracks – where a fresh set of guards undergoes inspection before they leave (at 10:57) for Buckingham Palace.
We would normally march along with this new Guard with their full military band, form the barracks to Buckingham Palace… but were not able to due to the stands you can see at the end of the video. The video ends with our walk back thru beautiful St. James Park.
