The Lord Mayor’s Show
In my article on Mayors and Lord Mayors I briefly mentioned the Lord Mayors Show.
The show was first held in 1215, when King John grated the City of London permission to elect its own mayor, but also insisted that the Lord Mayor should travel to the City of Westminster to swear loyalty to the crown. This tradition has continued uninterrupted by the Black Death, the Great Fire of London and the Blitz, it has only been cancelled once – on the occasion of the death of the Duke of Wellington.
The Lord Mayors Show was the first event ever to be broadcast live on television, a tradition that continues to this day.
The show takes place on the second Saturday in November each year; the date and route of the parade was fixed in the 1950′s as in the past the route would travel through the new Lord Mayor’s electoral ward, which meant that each year’s parade would take a different route, causing much confusion and disruption in the City.
The procession is preceded by a flypast by the Royal Air Force, then leaves the Lord Mayor’s official residence (the Mansion House) at 11 a.m.. The procession heads west along Cheapside towards St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Courts of Justice (also known as the Old Bailey) then down to Victoria Embankment before heading back to Mansion House, the last floats arriving back at around 4 p.m.
Around half a million people pile into the City of London to watch the pomp and pageantry, and around 6,000 people will take part in the three mile long procession, alongside 140 floats, carriages – including the richly gilded State Coach – marching bands, floats and other vehicles.
The parade is then followed by a fair in Paternoster Square near St. Paul’s Cathedral and a firework display on the River Thames, starting at about 5pm.
And for the record, the Mansion House is almost opposite the Bank of England, at the heart of the City, close to ‘Bank’ underground station, several hundred yards away from the underground station that bears the name ‘Mansion House’.