Changing of the Guard

The single most common wasted journey in London.

The ceremony does not take place every day. The schedule varies by season — more frequent in summer, less so in winter — and it is published in advance on the Household Division’s own site.

It is also cancelled at short notice in wet or very windy weather, and on days of state ceremonial. Visitors describe standing in the rain for an hour to be told it is off, or seeing a reduced version with no band.

Check the official schedule the day before and again on the morning, and have a fallback plan for the same hour.

The ceremony traditionally begins late in the morning, but start times shift — confirm for your date rather than trusting a guidebook.

The recurring advice from people who got a good view, and the recurring regret from those who did not.

The prime positions go early. Visitors report arriving three quarters of an hour ahead and finding the good spots long gone, with people having claimed them up to two hours before.

An hour before is the practical minimum in summer. Ninety minutes if you want the railings.

In winter, or on a wet day, forty-five minutes is usually enough.

One trap: access paths around the palace close before the ceremony, so arriving late does not just mean a poor view — it can mean being unable to reach the area at all, sent on a long detour.

Bring something to stand on if you are short. People do.

Four positions, and they suit different priorities.

The palace railings give you the closest view of the forecourt where the handover happens. They fill first and you will be pressed against the fence for an hour to hold the spot.

The steps of the Victoria Memorial are the best all-round choice — elevated, so you see over the crowd, with a view of both the forecourt and the troops marching in along the Mall. Also fills very early.

The Mall itself, between Marlborough Road and the palace, gives you the marching columns at close range with far fewer people. You miss the forecourt ceremony but you see the bands and the detachments properly.

Birdcage Walk and Spur Road are where the troops come from and go to, and are the quietest of the lot.

The most useful thing in this guide.

The mounted change at Horse Guards Parade, on Whitehall, happens at the same late-morning hour on most days, and it is a fraction as crowded.

The Household Cavalry ride in, the change takes place in the parade ground, and there are no railings between you and the horses — white lines painted on the ground mark how close you may stand.

You are metres away rather than fifty deep behind a fence.

There is also a shorter inspection ceremony at Horse Guards in the late afternoon, which is quieter still.

Whitehall is a ten-minute walk from the palace. Doing Horse Guards instead of, or as well as, the palace ceremony is what experienced visitors do.

Worth knowing so you understand what you are looking at rather than waiting for something that is not coming.

The old guard hands responsibility for the palace to the new guard in the forecourt, with a military band playing throughout — often popular music as well as marches, which surprises people.

Detachments march in along the Mall and from Wellington Barracks, in red tunics and bearskins in ceremonial order.

The whole thing runs around forty-five minutes, though the marching in and out extends it either side.

Much of the ceremonial takes place inside the forecourt railings and can be hard to see from behind a crowd — which is why the elevated positions matter more than the close ones.

The area around the ceremony is worth more than the ceremony itself for some visitors.

St James’s Park is directly behind the Victoria Memorial, and the view of the palace from the bridge over the lake is the best there is — pelicans in the foreground, the palace framed by trees.

The Mall runs from the palace to Admiralty Arch in a straight ceremonial line.

Green Park is on the other side.

After the ceremony the crowd disperses in every direction at once. Walking into the park rather than toward the Tube for twenty minutes is considerably more pleasant than joining it.

Horse Guards, Whitehall, Downing Street and Westminster are all within a fifteen-minute walk east.

You will be standing outdoors, in one place, for well over an hour.

There is no shelter anywhere along the railings, the memorial or the Mall.

In rain the ceremony may be cancelled or reduced, and you will be wet either way — bring a coat rather than an umbrella, since umbrellas block the view of everyone behind you and you will be asked to lower it.

In summer the forecourt area is exposed and hot with no shade.

Wear shoes you can stand in. Take water. There are no toilets in the immediate area, which matters after ninety minutes of waiting — use the ones in St James’s Park before you take up position.

July, August and June are the busiest months, with May and September close behind — a clear summer pattern driven by both visitor numbers and a fuller ceremonial schedule.

January, February and November are the quietest.

Winter has two advantages: far smaller crowds, so a decent position needs less waiting, and a good chance of seeing the ceremony in greatcoats rather than tunics, which some people prefer.

The trade is a reduced schedule and a higher chance of weather cancellation.

If you are visiting in summer, the crowd is the price. If you are visiting in winter, the schedule is.

Honest assessment: an hour and a half of standing still in a crowd, followed by a forty-minute ceremony mostly seen over the heads of adults.

That is a hard proposition for younger children, and a great many family accounts describe it as more effort than it was worth.

What helps: the Victoria Memorial steps, where children can sit and see over the crowd. Horse Guards instead, where the horses are close and the wait is shorter. Or watching the detachments march along the Mall or Birdcage Walk, which is the same soldiers at a fraction of the crush.

St James’s Park immediately afterwards, with its playground and pelicans, rescues the morning.

A buggy is very difficult in the crowd at the railings.

Difficult, and worth planning around.

The area is level and paved, but the crowd density is the barrier — moving a wheelchair into position once people have gathered is close to impossible, and sightlines from a seated position behind a standing crowd are poor.

The Victoria Memorial steps are steps.

The practical answers: arrive very early to secure a front position at the railings, or choose the Mall or Birdcage Walk where the crowd is thinner and the troops pass close by, or go to Horse Guards, where the parade ground is open and the crowd is a fraction of the size.

Accessible toilets are in St James’s Park rather than at the palace.

Green Park, St James’s Park, Victoria and Hyde Park Corner are all within a ten-minute walk of the palace.

Green Park and St James’s Park stations are the most direct.

Arrive well before the ceremony: roads and paths around the palace close beforehand and stations become congested with everyone arriving at once.

For Horse Guards, Westminster and Charing Cross are the nearest stations.

Afterwards, walking east along the Mall toward Trafalgar Square or south through the park to Westminster is faster and more pleasant than the Tube for the first twenty minutes.

The reviews divide sharply, and the divide is almost entirely about position and preparation.

The disappointing version: turn up fifteen minutes before, find yourself ten deep behind the railings, see a bearskin and a flag through a forest of raised phones, stand in the rain for an hour, and conclude it is overrated.

The good version: check the schedule the night before, arrive an hour ahead, take the Victoria Memorial steps or the Mall, watch the detachments march in with the band playing, and walk into St James’s Park afterwards while everyone else queues for the Tube.

Or skip the palace entirely and go to Horse Guards, where you stand metres from the Household Cavalry with barely a crowd. It is free, it is the same morning, and almost nobody does it.