Description
The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is the ceremony in which the soldiers guarding the King's London residences hand over to a fresh detachment: scarlet tunics, tall bearskin hats, marching band and a crowd along the railings of the palace forecourt.
The guard is the King's Guard, soldiers of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. They watch over Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace, and the ceremony is the handover between the old guard and the new one.
Don't miss the band. At least 35 musicians march with the new guard from Wellington Barracks into the palace forecourt, and they play marches, show tunes and even pop songs while the two guards face each other.
The best moment is the exchange of the keys. The two captains march toward each other in the forecourt and hand over the keys of the palace, while the regimental colours are paraded up and down by junior officers.
Then comes the old guard's departure. The old guard and the band march out through the centre gates in slow time to the regiment's slow march, and at the end the drums roll and the order comes to break into quick time.
The St James's Palace detachment arrives separately, led by the corps of drums, marching along the Mall to join the one already at Buckingham Palace. The Mall, the long avenue running to the palace, fills with spectators well before the soldiers appear.
These soldiers are not just for show: they guard day and night and patrol the grounds after dark.
Until 1959 the sentries stood outside the railings. Then a tourist pestered one guardsman too many, and he kicked her on the ankle as he marched. He was confined to barracks for ten days, and the sentries moved inside the fence.
A sentry's turn lasts two hours, with strict rules: no eating, no sleeping, no smoking, no sitting down. Every ten minutes he comes to attention and marches fifteen paces across his post.
A second ceremony takes place at Horse Guards, a short walk away, where the mounted King's Life Guard stands. Sentries have been posted there since the Restoration of the Stuarts, when the Palace of Whitehall was the main royal residence.
The two mounted sentries change every hour, and when the guards change, the trumpeters sound the royal salute.
The ceremony is held in the forecourt at 11:00 am, daily in early summer and four times a week otherwise, so the crowds are thickest in the warm months.
The guard is the King's Guard, soldiers of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. They watch over Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace, and the ceremony is the handover between the old guard and the new one.
Don't miss the band. At least 35 musicians march with the new guard from Wellington Barracks into the palace forecourt, and they play marches, show tunes and even pop songs while the two guards face each other.
The best moment is the exchange of the keys. The two captains march toward each other in the forecourt and hand over the keys of the palace, while the regimental colours are paraded up and down by junior officers.
Then comes the old guard's departure. The old guard and the band march out through the centre gates in slow time to the regiment's slow march, and at the end the drums roll and the order comes to break into quick time.
The St James's Palace detachment arrives separately, led by the corps of drums, marching along the Mall to join the one already at Buckingham Palace. The Mall, the long avenue running to the palace, fills with spectators well before the soldiers appear.
These soldiers are not just for show: they guard day and night and patrol the grounds after dark.
Until 1959 the sentries stood outside the railings. Then a tourist pestered one guardsman too many, and he kicked her on the ankle as he marched. He was confined to barracks for ten days, and the sentries moved inside the fence.
A sentry's turn lasts two hours, with strict rules: no eating, no sleeping, no smoking, no sitting down. Every ten minutes he comes to attention and marches fifteen paces across his post.
A second ceremony takes place at Horse Guards, a short walk away, where the mounted King's Life Guard stands. Sentries have been posted there since the Restoration of the Stuarts, when the Palace of Whitehall was the main royal residence.
The two mounted sentries change every hour, and when the guards change, the trumpeters sound the royal salute.
The ceremony is held in the forecourt at 11:00 am, daily in early summer and four times a week otherwise, so the crowds are thickest in the warm months.