Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by to read what to expect at the Horse Guard Parade in London.

But what does Horse Guard Parade mean? When I think of parades I think of floats, marching bands, and maybe some horses.

The Horse Guards is a big building that is considered the entrance way to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. Two of the King’s Life Guard sentries are posted on horseback between 10am and 4pm daily. The horse and riders switch off every hour.

Behind this building is the area known as the parade grounds. This is where the changing of the guards ceremony for the horse guards takes place every weekday at 11am.

Interestingly, for much of the last century this area was used as a parking lot, until a mortar attack in 1991. The British government doesn’t take too kindly to bombs planted in cars, and in 1997 car parking was banned here.

The Horse Guard Parade ceremony

The best time to arrive to watch the Horse Guard Parade ceremony would be by 10:30am to be at the front of the roped off area. It is standing room only, wheelchair accessible.

Just before 11am, a group of seven horses and sentries ride out of the stables onto the parade grounds.

A few minutes later, 12 horses and their riders who are coming off duty at Buckingham Palace arrive to the parade grounds. They are accompanied by mounted police officers. One in the front and one in the rear. Crowd patrol?

The arriving horses line up across from the seven horses already on the grounds. After inspection, five of the horses return to their stables.

The remaining seven horses and sentries, plus the seven that were first inside the parade grounds, stare each other down for the next 30 minutes.

Nothing else happens.

Feel free to leave or go do something else.

Around 11:30 five more horses and sentries come out of the stables and join the seven that have been waiting on the parade grounds for the last 35 minutes or so.

The seven horses and sentries who came off duty at Buckingham Palace now return to the stables.

Action!

The 12 horses and sentries coming on to duty at Buckingham Palace leave the parade grounds at 11:30am. They ride up the Mall and go to Buckingham Palace and there are lots of places along this route to take photos. The Mall is another way of saying the road to Buckingham Palace. The police have shut down the Mall (the road) to vehicular traffic. It will reopen after the ceremony ends.

If it’s a day where the changing of the guard is scheduled at Buckingham Palace, the new horses and sentries heading to Buckingham Palace and the foot soldiers coming off duty will pass each other on the Mall.

Watch the Horse Guard in action

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Take a walk with me around London including the front of the Horse Guard Parade and the sentries, and a little of Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards ceremony.

And that’s a wrap for the Horse Guard Parade. It’s over in about 45 minutes, much of that time with nothing happening.

It’s all part of the British tradition.

Have you seen the Horse Guard Parade?

Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on September 17, 2024.

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