Watch the Trooping the Colour flypast

If you haven't already had too much royal pageantry this year, the Queen will be inspecting her troops on Horseguards Parade from 10am, with processions viewable from the Mall, all finished off with a good old fashioned RAF flypast at 1pm.


At the time of going to pixel details were mysteriously absent from the RAF website, but the flypast usually approaches from the East over Central London, and we are also told to expect a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London.

For more, see http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/TroopingtheColour/TroopingtheColour.aspx

_{^Picture © Oxyman and used under a Creative Commons licence^}

See the Diamond Jubilee Beacons

As another way to mark this weekend's orgiastic celebration of leadership-by-birthright thousands of Jubilee Beacons will be lit around the UK and the Commonwealth this evening, including many in London.


For South Londoners, a number of beacons are being lit with a possible highlight being the one by the Friends of One Tree Hill, which if your author has read it right will be lit at 10.26pm, whilst for North Londoners a beacon will be lit at Kenwood House at 10.01pm, because that is a place where a member of the aristocracy once lived and is therefore deemed more important than a public park.

For more, see http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/diamond-jubilee-beacons or see this map.

Admire the Canada Gate

Often overlooked by tourists gazing in the opposite direction towards Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial, the Canada Gates are an impressive entrance to Green Park, presented to London by Canada.


Commissioned after the death of Queen Victoria, in 1905, the gates match up with smaller ones presented by Australia and South Africa, and were finally completed in 1911.

For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Gate_and_Canada_Memorial

_{^Picture © Ian D used under Creative Commons^}

Visit Kensington Palace

Newly reopened after a two-year, £12 million refurbishment, Kensington Palace is arguably one of London's best-positioned buildings, with a central location in Kensington Gardens, looking Eastwards towards Round Pond. Originally built in the early 17th century by a wealthy nobleman, the palace was acquired for King William III, in 1689, because the King wanted to live near London but suffered from asthma and needed somewhere with clean air.


The Palace is, we are told, an official residence of world-famous multi-millionaires, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and they also bunk up with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent when they are in town, so visitors should expect an onslaught of Monarchism if they visit, but this is, of course, part of all our histories, so is understandable.

For more, see http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/

Walk beside Pen Ponds

Out in the wilds of Richmond Park there is much more wildlife to be found than just the deer, and Pen Ponds is a great spot to find some of it, rich with wildfowl, it is also a spot for regular sightings of other birds, including buzzards and parakeets.


The lake itself is manmade and divided in two by a causeway, and whilst the Royal Parks record that they were formally dug in 1746, other accounts suggest that they were originally dug as gravel pits as early as the 1600s. Today, we are told that the reedbeds of Pen Ponds are a particularly important habitat for naturalists and ornithologists

For more, see http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park/landscape_history.cfm

_{^Picture © Phillip Jenkins - The Critical Path used under Creative Commons^}

Visit the Savoy Chapel

Also known as the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, the Savoy Chapel is situated behind the Savoy Hotel and is the only remaining piece of Henry VII's hospital for homeless people, founded in 1512.


Owned by the Queen through the Duchy of Lancaster, one of the vast land estates still personal possessions of members of the monarchy, the chapel is a free church and does not fall within the jurisdiction of any bishop.

The church gets its name from an original which was part of John of Gaunt's medieval Savoy Palace, on the same site, and was burned down in the Peasants Revolt of 1381. For more information, see the Duchy website.

Gaze up at the Duke of York Column

Central London's other column may not be as famous as the one that stands in Trafalgar Square, but it is just as imposing, standing over 120 feet tall and topped off by a bronze statue of the Duke which itself is 14 feet in height.


However, surprisingly few Londoners seem to know where to find the Duke of York Column, which has towered above Carlton Gardens beside the Royal Society, surveying the Mall and St James' Park, since 1833.

Many might even question who he was, although they will almost all know a rhyme about this 'Grand Old Duke Of York, who had 10,000 men'. So, next time you are in the area, take a look up at the statue of Prince Frederick, Duke of York, hero of the French Revolutionary Wars, and remember his story.

For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_York_Column

See Princess Caroline's Bath

At the Southern end of Greenwich Park, the sunken bath of Princess Caroline of Brunswick, the wife of the Prince Regent, later George IV, is all that remains of the Princess' former home, Montague House.


Caroline lived here for more than ten years, banished by a husband who hated the sight of her, and said that she smelled, and the sunken bath was at the heart of an elaborate bath house, which has long since been razed to the ground.

For more information, see http://www.thegreenwichphantom.co.uk/2007/01/princess-carolines-bath/

Visit the Albert Memorial

London has many royal memorials, but the grandest and most impressive is surely the Albert Memorial, opposite the Royal Albert Hall, in Kensington Gardens.


Your author tries to give a bit of variety with his suggestions, but sometimes the originals are the best. The Albert Memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her late husband Prince Albert, after his death in 1861. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, it finally opened in 1872, but the seated statue of Albert, by John Henry Foley, wasn't added until 1875.

The huge memorial has a range of features including allegorical sculptures at each corner, depicting the Victorian industrial arts and sciences - agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing - and the Victorian continents - Europe, Asia, Africa and The Americas.

For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Memorial

_{^Picture by ajagendorf25^}

Watch for horses on Rotten Row

Rotten Row is a sand-covered bridleway in Hyde Park which is part of the Hyde Park South Ride for horses. It was created by William III in the 17th century, and was even lit with oil lamps in 1690, becoming the first artificially lit highway in Britain.


Whilst it became popular as a meeting place for rich Londoners on horseback in the 18th century, it now sees less traffic, only drawing the super-rich who can afford to stable horses around Hyde Park, the Household Cavalry, who have stables in Hyde Park Barracks in Knightsbridge, and some members of the public from commercial stables nearby where horses are available to hire for lessons at a steep fee.

For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_Row

_{^Picture by garryknight^}

See the Queen on her journey to Parliament

It's tough to get a ticket to be on the pavement today in some areas of Westminster, but in others, if you pick your area well, you might catch a glimpse of every tourist's most sought-after London celebrity-spot, and one of the year's greatest displays of pageantry.


This morning, the Queen makes her journey from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in order to open the Parliamentary session for another year. She's not the only one to be making the journey, and if you keep your eye out you will be able to see a number of royals and hangers-on all dressed up in their finery. The Crown even has its own carriage.

Down on Whitehall and Parliament Street, guards line the route and military bands play to anticipate her arrival. The Queen arrives in a horse-drawn coach, entering through Sovereign's Entrance under the Victoria Tower. The Royal Standard is then raised over the Houses of Parliament and remains in place until she leaves.

She then dons the Robes of State and the Imperial State Crown in the Robing Chamber, using a small worn throne that has been used by every monarch since Queen Victoria, and then proceeds through the royal gallery, usually accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, to the House of Lords, where there is a grander throne upon which she sits.

After the summoning of the Members of the House of Commons by Black Rod, she then gives a speech to announce the legislative programme for the next Parliamentary Session, which as it can only last until June at the very latest, is likely to be a controversial one this year.

Your author could go on about this forever, but probably best for him not to. If you are interested, please have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Opening_of_Parliament

_{^Picture of the Queen's carriage in 2007 by your author^}

See Kensington Palace

One of the lesser known, and slightly cheaper to visit, of the royal palaces, Kensington Palace is set at the Westerly end of Kensington Gardens.


Your author slipped into a Diana trap earlier in the week, and it seems he has returned today as more recently, the palace has been where they have put princesses before they die. It was home to Princess Diana up until her death in 1997, Princess Margaret until she died in 2002, and Princess Alice until she passed away in 2004.

As with many of these palaces, it's only the State Rooms that are open to the public and there's a cost of £12.50 attached. Whilst this gets you in to see a ‘Last debutantes' and a 'Diana, fashion and style’ exhibition, this will surely be full of the kind of upper class fawning which your author finds to be a bit of a turn-off.

Still, never mind. It's an interesting building, having been built in the 17th-century and taken over by an asthmatic William III shortly afterwards as the King wanted a house away from the smoky air of the capital. Many other royals have lived here since and it was in a bedroom at Kensington Palace on 20th June 1837 that an 18 year old Princess Victoria awoke to the news that she was Queen.

Kensington Palace is open daily 10am until 6pm. For more information, visit http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/

_{^Picture by wolfsavard^}

See the Queen's rides

The Royal Mews, on Buckingham Palace Road, is part of the palace itself and is where the Queen keeps her horses and carriages.


The Royal Mews was originally based at Charing Cross, on the site where Trafalgar Square is now, but this has been the Royal stables since 1761, when George III moved some of his horses and carriages to the grounds of Buckingham House, which his son later developed into Buckingham Palace.

Queen Victoria expanded the stables substantially to the size we see today. They are home to the Gold State Coach, which has not been used since the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, and other carriages, along with arounc 30 horses

Entry to the Mews costs £7.50 (and it is just some horses and carriages) and the Mews is open to the public daily (except Fridays) from 28th March until 31st October from 11am - 4pm.

For more information, visit http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=31.