Red Arrows Will Fly Over London For The King’s Birthday
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5 months ago
Here’s when you’ll be able to see them
Happy Birthday, King Charles III! The King will celebrate his official birthday with a Trooping the Colour ceremony near Buckingham Palace this weekend. Plus, the Red Arrows will pass overhead. Here’s everything to expect, plus how to see it.
London’s Festivities For King Charles III’s Birthday
Charles III was born in November, so why are we celebrating him now? The third Saturday in June is the British monarch’s ‘official birthday’, following in the footsteps of his late mother Elizabeth II, who was born in April but celebrated her ‘official birthday’ on the second Saturday of June. It’s a tradition that stretches back several centuries in the British monarchy, and the monarch celebrates the day as well as their real birthday.
Trooping The Colour
A Trooping the Colour ceremony takes place in celebration of the monarch’s official birthday every year. A military event, it takes place on Horse Guards Parade on the opposite side of St James’s Park from Buckingham Palace. This year, it will kick off at 10am, with an impressive display of pageantry involving over 1,400 officers and soldiers, 200 horses, 400 musicians, 10 bands and the King himself.
Watch
Members of the public are welcome to come and watch, with standing areas on The Mall or on the edge of St James’s Park. If you’re not in London, the King’s Birthday Parade will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 10.30am. bbc.co.uk
Red Arrows
This Saturday (15 June), the Red Arrows will take off from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire at around 12.30pm. They will then fly over East Anglia, Ipswich, Colchester and Essex before making it to east London at around 1pm, before flying over Hackney, Shoreditch, the City and Westminster before finally passing over Buckingham Place at 1.06pm.
The planes will then continue west, over Belgravia, Kensington, Hammersmith and Brentford, reaching Heathrow Airport by 1.09pm. By 1.10pm, the speedy jets will fly over Windsor Castle before heading back home to Lincolnshire.
