KING Charles’s route through London on the day of the coronation has been shortened, leading some campaigners to suggest that it is because fewer people will turn up.
During Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, her journey towards Westminster Abbey from Buckingham Palace was 1.6 miles.
However, King Charles and wife Camilla will take a shortened route to the ceremony of only 1.3 miles.
The late Queen’s return journey was a mammoth five miles in length. But Charles will return to Buckingham Palace along the same route through which he arrived.
An estimated 3 million people crowded the streets during the Queen’s coronation but the shortened route suggests that fewer will turn out for King Charles – if only because they have far less chance of actually seeing him.
Republic, a campaign group calling for an elected head of state in the UK, said: “We now know the route (as expected, it's shorter, probably because they know they won't get the same crowds).
“We will be protesting in Trafalgar Square and may add smaller protests along the route.”
The royal couple will travel to the abbey in the diamond jubilee coach, which was built in 2010 in Australia by coachbuilder W J Frecklington.
It was financed as a private initiative, with the builders receiving a £138,000 grant from the Australian government.
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They will then return to Buckingham Palace in a different carriage: the 280-year-old gold state coach.
The last time the Queen rode in the coach she described the experience as “horrible”.
Several protests are planned in both London and Scotland on May 6, the day of the coronation, including one on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
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