Crowds came early today on The Mall to get good viewing positions for the biggest royal celebration in decades, which kicks off with Trooping the Colour.
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The Mall was lined with Union Jack blazers, flags, and hats this morning as royal superfans waited for the Queen’s historic birthday parade to begin at 10 a.m.
The 1st Battalion Irish Guards, along with almost 1,500 officers and men from the Household Division, will parade the color – or flag – to adoring royalists.
The Trooping the Colour will then mark the monarch’s official birthday, as has been tradition for the last 260 years. This year the colour will be trooped by the 1st Batallion, Irish Guards, with up to 1,450 officers and soldiers from the Household Division, together with 400 Army musicians and around 240 horses.
Prince Charles will take the Salute, joined by Prince William, a Colonel in the regiment and Princess Anne.
Royal fans across the country who aren’t lucky enough to have a space along The Mall can watch events unfold on huge screens in nearby St James Park, or in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh or Bute Park in Cardiff.
More than 350 horses and hundreds of military musicians will be involved in the procession, in which members of the Royal Family will travel on horseback and in carriages down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade, where the ceremony takes place.
In a show of the resilience that has marked her record-breaking reign, the Queen has vowed to make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Thursday, the first day of her Jubilee celebrations.
A Royal source told the Mail On Sunday: ‘The Queen is determined to take part in the Jubilee celebrations. Trooping was brought forward by one week to be part of the Jubilee this year and the Queen very much wants to be part of it.’
Buckingham Palace announced that ‘after careful consideration’ the Queen would not invite the Duke of York or the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to join her as they were no longer working members of the Royal Family.
A Palace spokesman said the Royal balcony appearances would be limited to members of the Royal Family ‘who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of the Queen’.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their children have arrived in the UK, marking daughter Lilibet’s first time in the country, ahead of today’s first of the Platinum Jubilee events.
The Sussexes left LAX airport with their children Archie and Lilibet, who will meet her great-grandmother for the first time as she turns one on Saturday.
The family of four landed in a London airport this afternoon, with a small team of staffers, Page Six reported.
One source suggested they left overnight last night, and would have been landing in London this afternoon after a 12 hour flight — just months after Harry claimed he was ‘unable to return home’ because is too dangerous.
On June 4, their daughter Lilibet will be marking her first birthday. The Queen is likely to miss her favourite sporting event, the Derby horse races at Epsom, for the little one’s celebrations, as she meets her for the first time.
While the couple are expected to attend Trooping the Colour as spectators tomorrow, Andrew will not, a military source told MailOnline.
As colonel of the Grenadier Guards, Andrew has previously played a key role in the ceremony, riding out by the Queen’s side as the regiment’s representative.
Since being stripped of the title earlier this year the Duke of York was not expected to play an active part in the event, but the possibility of him appearing with other royals on Horse Guards Parade as a spectator had previously been left open.
Both Andrew and the Sussexes have already been barred from appearing on the Buckingham Palace to watch the RAF Red Arrows’ flypast.
A record 12million people are gearing up for street parties held in the Queen’s honour during the special extended bank holiday weekend.
Millions of people across the nation will be celebrating the Platinum Jubilee at patriotic street parties while live music, light projections and life-size cut outs of the Queen herald the historic occasion over the next four days.
Events range from family picnics to a record-breaking 5,000-strong street party in the North West, in what the Met Office has said will be a quintessentially British summer bank holiday of drizzle and patchy sunshine.
The largest party celebrating the Queen’s record-breaking 70-year reign is set to be Morecambe Bay’s Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday, which is hosting around 5,000 people at over 500 tables overlooking the sea.
Official celebrations will begin at 1pm with a Samba dance down the promenade, before Lord Shuttleworth – the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire – cuts a replica cake of the kind the Queen cut at the G7 Big Lunch at Eden last year.
Organiser Luke Trevaskis said the Lancashire seaside town is ‘incredibly proud’ to be hosting Jubilee celebrations.
Mr Trevaskis, who is the chief executive at Morecambe Town Council, told the PA News Agency: ‘This is going to be the first major event Morecambe has had coming out of lockdown, which was a very, very difficult period of time for so many people.
It’s going to be an amazing opportunity for communities to come together and celebrate the Queen being on the throne for 70 years, but also to really celebrate what makes Morecambe special.
‘Morecambe is so multi-cultural, we have a sense of pride in our diversity – and people who weren’t born in Morecambe have a sense of pride in the monarchy just as much as the people who were.’
Red, white and blue smoke cannons will be released across the bay at 3.30pm to mark the end of the jubilations. At the opposite end of the country, an LED beacon will be illuminating the south coast from Hove Esplanade in Brighton, East Sussex.
The city’s mayor, Lizzie Deane, said: ‘The Platinum Jubilee is a historic national occasion and I know many people are looking forward to having a long weekend to spend with friends and family.’
In Croydon, south London, a thanksgiving service will be held at Addiscombe Catholic Church, where diversity will be celebrated in the Queen’s 70th year.
Organiser Sylvia Wachuku-King said prayers will be said in six languages, while Guides are crafting a quilt representing the jubilee.
Meanwhile in nearby Bromley, a committee of seven women have planned a street party for 40 families.
Hairdresser Athina Hapeshis, 55, said her street came together as a community during the coronavirus pandemic, and they have decorated 72 trees in the area with Union Jack colours in preparation for the party.
Mrs Hapeshis, who is a grandmother-to-three and has a life-size cut out of the Queen in her home overlooking the street festivities, said residents can expect cakes, a live DJ and games for the children.
She told PA: ‘I remember the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and I wanted to make sure my grandchildren and all the children around here have something to remember.’
When asked what the monarchy meant to her community, she said: ‘Because it’s such a mix of age groups, everyone will have their own view, but it’s definitely brought the community together.
‘The fact the Queen has been serving so many years and she’s a woman – the children have been learning a lot about it at school.
‘We’re just waiting for the weather to say ‘yes, it’s going to be amazing’.’
The Met Office has said northern areas can expect a cool and showery start to the bank holiday on Thursday, before temperatures pick up on Friday, which is set to be the warmest day of the weekend.
Temperatures are set to soar to 26C in the south on Friday, while north-west Scotland is expected to be the warmest on Sunday.
An estimated 10 million people plan to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The Department also said that more than 70,000 ‘Big Jubilee Lunches’ and 200,000 more local events have been planned across the four nations.
Many official events will also be collecting money for charities throughout the bank holiday. Across the Commonwealth and the rest of the world, more than 600 Big Jubilee Lunches are planned in around 80 countries – from Greenland to New Zealand.