Changing of Guards at the Buckingham Palace

This ceremony takes place everyday from April-July and on alternate days during the rest of the year, it is almost a 700-year-old tradition, but still attracts a large crowd every time it happens. Today was no different. Hundreds of tourists thronged the fences of the Buckingham palace and were fighting for a good position from which they can see the Changing of Guard. 

The Guard that looks after Buckingham Palace is called The Queen's Guard and changing the Guard or Guard Mounting involves a new guard exchanging duty with the old guard. All the guards taking part in this colourful spectacle are dressed in traditional red tunics and bearskin hats, and the entire ceremony is set to music.

The change of guards is not just a ceremonial event though. The Queen’s guard consists of some of the best soldiers in the British Army who have fought in almost every major clash. The strength of the guard is determined by the Queen’s presence – if she is at home, the guard is larger.

The crowd opposite the palace, trying to catch a
glimpse of the ceremony

The ceremony begins at 11:30 and takes about 45 minutes. One of the policewomen who were regulating the crowd told us that people start lining right from the wee hours of the morning to get a good view of the ceremony. But we were super late and reached the palace only around 11:15 and to our great disappointment, all we could see was only human heads, the guards were at a blurry distance. After looking for a good spot in vain for about ten minutes, we tried squeezing through the crowd, and me being small had its advantage, I was able to peek through one of the fences and a guard marched pretty close to me. How cool is that! But for want of a better position, we thought we would at least go up the steps opposite the palace, but as we were moving with the crowd, we were stopped by the regulating policemen and by pure blind luck, we were stuck RIGHT OUTSIDE one of the gates with a good view. The kind but firm policewoman said, “Some of you have been waiting here since morning and some of you just got lucky, but I would rather that everybody got a good view so do not come beyond this post”. Well, I wasn't complaining. I was the lucky one. They also kindly allowed all the kids in the crowd to come forward and sit which was pretty sweet. We were all waiting for the guards to come through the gate and we could hear a mixture of languages being spoken by tourists from across the world around us.

My initial view through the bars

Then the music started and the guards followed the band playing the ceremonial music. They all marched in unison and a hundred cameras from the crowd followed them as they marched. We couldn't believe it was happening right in front of us! It was like we had drunk a bottle of Felix Felicis(Harry Potter reference). 

After the ceremony, we sat down in the 53-acre St. James’ Park to have our packed chapathis. We were just idling around watching the birds and the crowds disperse after the ceremony. Got a glimpse of the old guards walking back at a distance. Now we are off to Victoria terminus to catch our bus to Stonehenge. See ya!