For those readers who are interested in the nuts and bolts of the British Monarchy, there is an excellent article in today’s Daily Telegraph on the next Coronation, presumably of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953

Read the article here : Thoughts on the next Coronation.

Back in 1953, when Britain was still under the rule of austerity after the war, the most sumptuous event in a century was staged in central London. It was the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Before the Crowning

It was also notable as the first Coronation ever to be televised. The BBC, under Head of Outside Broadcasts, Peter Dimmock, strove mightily to bring this extraordinary ceremony to a television audience watching on tiny monochrome sets all around the country. That it succeeded at all was a minor miracle, as Dimmock concedes.

Here are a few reminders of what people saw that day :

After the Crowning

A new Elizabethan Age begins

Back to the Palace

I suppose we’ll see another Coronation in London within the next decade or two. I wonder if it will match the 1953 occasion with its momentous sense of new beginning and expectation?