[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 11 September 2016]

 

3 December 2015, Thursday

For our final day in London, we took it easy as we had already covered most of the key sights during the previous two days. This morning, we set out to Buckingham Palace to witness the Changing of the Guard Parade. The ceremony officially starts at 11:30am, but we arrived much earlier at 10am in order to secure a good spot, because a huge crowd is known to show up every day.

Buckingham Palace was built in 1703 and it has 775 rooms altogether, including 19 State Rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. That’s a lot of rooms! It is the official residence of the Royal Family, but only The Queen lives there today. Prince Charles lives in Clarence House in London while Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (i.e. Prince William and Kate Middleton) live in Kensington Palace in London. Not surprisingly, with only one main occupant, Buckingham Palace is used mostly as a working building and it is the venue for many royal events and ceremonies.

Standing directly opposite Buckingham Palace is the Victoria Memorial, built as a monument to Queen Victoria and completed in 1924. It occupies a prime spot as it is located in the middle of a roundabout and directly faces Buckingham Palace. From there, you can capture almost the whole palace building in your photograph. By about 10:45am, a sizeable crowd had formed and we quickly went to take up our positions. Standing on the steps of Victoria Memorial, you are heads and shoulders above the crowd and you will be able to get a good view of the entire proceedings, although you won’t be as near to the action as compared to standing at the gates or behind the barriers along the road.

To put it simply, the Changing of the Guard ceremony is where the Old Guard hands over the responsibility for protecting Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Palace to the New Guard. St. James’s Palace was the principal residence of the monarch before being displaced by Buckingham Palace and it is used mainly as official offices today. It is located at Pall Mall, less than 500m away.

At about 11:15am, the Old Guard at St. James’s Palace, accompanied by a band, will march to Buckingham Palace to join the Old Guard there. Together, the two contingents of Old Guards will take up position at the forecourt in front of Buckingham Palace. While waiting for the New Guard to arrive, the band will play a selection of music. Concurrently, the New Guard will march off from Wellington Barracks, located between Birdcage Walk and Petty France about 500m away from Buckingham Palace.

When the New Guard arrives at 11:30am, they will halt in front of the Old Guard. The Captain of the Guard will then ceremoniously hand over the Palace keys as a symbolic gesture to represent the transfer of responsibility. This is followed by a series of handing over and taking over procedures, accompanied by music from the band. At about 12:05pm, the Guards are called to attention and the Old Guard will march off through the centre gate, and the ceremony comes to an end.

During our visit, the Guards were dressed in grey overcoats instead of their trademark red garbs. The grey coats are used for autumn and winter while the red ones are worn in summer and spring. The grey coats are thicker and longer, and they offer better protection against the cold. The resplendent red coats would certainly have stood out more in the drab winter morning.

By the time the ceremony ended, we were numb from the cold and were quite glad to be able to move around instead of being rooted to the spot. Personally, I feel that the Changing of the Guard ceremony is a little overrated. If you arrive too late, you won’t be able to see much because of the crowd. So the alternative is to arrive early enough to secure a good spot, but that means a long waiting time. After the long wait, there is a slight sense of disappointment because there isn’t much action going on when the actual changing of the guard takes place. The most enjoyable part of the ceremony is actually the music being played by the band.

I used to be from the military band while serving National Service in Singapore, and we do have a Changing of Guards ceremony as well. However, not many people know about it because it is not well publicised at all. I just did a search and discovered that the schedule is published on The Istana’s website here. The ceremony takes place on the first Sunday evening of every month. The New Guard is accompanied by the band and the Military Police and together, they will march down Orchard Road towards the Istana. Back in my time, between 2001 and 2003, we used to march off from the small road beside Heeren shopping centre. These days, they commence their march at about 5:45pm from Koek Road, beside OG Orchard Point.

I always loved doing the Changing of Guards ceremony because it was very cool as we would march on Orchard Road itself, and the Traffic Police would clear the roads ahead of us to allow us to march through. As it took place on Sunday evening, Orchard Road would be packed with people at that hour and we would usually attract a sizeable audience. Some of them would even follow us on the pedestrian pavements and walk along with us till we reached the Istana gates. Dressed in our smart Number 1 uniforms, we felt like stars as they snapped photos and shot videos of us in action.

As the format of our ceremony is based on the one at Buckingham Palace, the overall procedures are similar. The Old Guard will be accompanied by another band and Military Police and they will march from within the Istana grounds to the main entrance gate, where they will await the arrival of the New Guard. Once the New Guard arrives, a series of handover procedures will take place.

However, where our ceremony differs is that we have an additional segment where the Silent Precision Drill Squad (SPDS) officers from the Military Police will perform rifle drills in conjunction with the music played by the band, which is usually an upbeat pop song. During my time, we played everything from “Sex Bomb” by Tom Jones to “The Ketchup Song (Asereje)” by Las Ketchup.

As the SPDS officers execute their elaborate drills and toss their rifles expertly in the air to be caught by their fellow officers, they usually receive a warm ovation, and we, the band members, are happy to let them take the spotlight. After that, the ceremony concludes and the Old Guard together with the band and military police, will march off towards Bras Basah Road, while the New Guard and its posse will march back towards the Istana grounds.

I would say our Singapore Changing of Guards ceremony is more entertaining because of the pop music segment with SPDS rifle drill. But of course, the Buckingham Palace ceremony wins in terms of grandeur and tradition. Not to mention that the uniform donned by the Guardsmen (with their tall, furry bearskin hats) is more iconic too.

Back to our London soiree, as the crowd dispersed at the end of the ceremony, we walked along Constitution Hill and passed by Green Park along the way. Some of the trees were draped in yellow leaves of autumn and it was a pretty sight. The end of Constitution Hill led to Hyde Park Corner Tube station and we continued along Knightsbridge and reached Harrods at Brompton Road.

Harrods is perhaps the world’s most famous department store. Founded in 1834, it is currently owned by rich Sheikh billionaires. It is the biggest department store in Europe and has 330 departments spread over its seven floors selling anything and everything under the roof. It is famous for its Food Hall and its iconic signature green shopping tote bag and teddy bear. It is a playground for the rich and we, mere mortals, didn’t belong there. We were planning to get some lunch there but everything was too pricey, so we left after a quick walk through the ground floor. We then had our lunch at one of the EAT. restaurants nearby.

Refuelled, we next went to Hyde Park for a stroll. Hyde Park is a massive green lung in the heart of London, much like Central Park in New York City. It is joined to the west by Kensington Gardens, home to Kensington Palace, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry currently reside. Prince William and Prince Harry have an affinity for Kensington Palace because they were raised here by their mother, the late Princess Diana.

At the time of our visit, Hyde Park was hosting its annual Winter Wonderland Christmas carnival. We didn’t enter the carnival, but chose to hang around at Serpentine Lake instead, mingling with the numerous white swans and ducks. After that, we took a bus to Marble Arch station, where we alighted at the end of Oxford Street, and it was time for some free-and-easy shopping.

Naturally, I made a beeline for HMV at 363 Oxford Street (near Bond Street Tube station), which is the new main store after the original flagship store at 150 Oxford Street closed in January 2014. It was well stocked with all the latest titles, selling a huge range of CDs, DVD, Blu Ray and vinyl records. I spent a long time in the store, browsing through every single rack. Oh gosh, how I miss shopping at these music megastores! I emerged with a big hole in my pocket, but very happy.

For dinner, sis picked out a restaurant near our hostel called Bodean’s, which was famous for its barbecued ribs. We ordered a Bodean’s Platter for £25.90, meant for two people to share. It consisted of a selection of Spare Ribs and Baby Back Ribs, Burnt Ends, Pulled Pork and Chicken Thighs, and also a serving of coleslaw and chips (fries). We also ordered a side of 6 Large Buffalo Chicken Wings for £8.95, and we chose it to be served with “Hot” sauce.

Turned out that the serving was huge and we couldn’t finish the food, as hard as we tried. It could have well fed four people comfortably. Luckily we did not order the additional serving for three people. Surprisingly, the Buffalo wings were really spicy and I had to wash it down with root beer to quell the spiciness. The ribs and pulled pork were quite good, though I felt that they could be a bit tenderer.

We left the restaurant bloated and went for a stroll along Regent Street and down to Piccadilly for the last time. As it was drizzling, we didn’t stay out for long and headed back to our hostel after a while to pack up. Last night in London, Manchester bound next!