Not all of them are there (they wouldn’t fit physically) but they are all of them. Hundreds of Britons, who have little to envy the fans of the National Lottery who stole the limelight from the children of San Ildefonso, have been camping for days on The Mall, the wide path that leads from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. Devotees of the British monarchy –incomparable in the pageantry and spectacularity of its public demonstrations– eagerly await to see Charles III up close on his way to Westminster Abbey tomorrow Saturday, the day of his coronation.
Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, so only subjects over the age of 75 may have memories of such a great event. The rest were between diapers and drawing with crayons, hence they live these days with unusual emotion. However, the fervor that Carlos will experience will not be far from the one that wrapped up his mother: 51% of Britons believe that the State should not run with the cats of this ceremony, according to the YouGov survey.
In any case, hundreds of ‘royal fans’ have been waiting for the moment for days. This idle wait goes a long way, not only on a graphic level: in the camping hours prior to the event, the fans share tea, sandwiches, some whiskey and hours in which they recount their lives. From this friction, affections like the one professed by Mr. London and Mrs. Foster have been born. London is a long-experienced ‘royal camper’: he was among the first to take up positions for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, her Jubilee and the births of Charles and Diana of Wales’s three children.
At the feast of Prince George, who will one day be King of England, he met Mrs. Foster: “I can’t wait to see what Catalina and Camilla wear. It is something once in a lifetimeâ€, explains the veteran to the Daily Express.
