Cast of Thousands Throngs London for Royal Wedding
By RAVI SOMAIYA
Published: April 29, 2011
LONDON — As last-minute preparations drew to a close, London braced Friday for a royal wedding that promises to be one of the largest and most widely watched events here in recent memory.
The Royal Wedding
Stay with The New York Times on April 29 for complete coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, which will include live video streaming from the event, slide shows, live blogging and more.
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The police expect that hundreds of thousands will throng the city’s streets for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday morning, craning for a glimpse of the royal family and the 1,900 other dignitaries gathering at Westminster Abbey. The crowds themselves will be watched by 5,000 police officers, according to the Metropolitan force, and the proceedings have drawn an estimated 8,500 journalists and support staff members from around the world.
Hundreds of millions more are expected to watch on television around the world, and dozens of temporary studios, filled with presenters speaking dozens of languages, have been built against the backdrop of a floodlit Buckingham Palace.
And the National Grid, the company that provides Britain’s electricity infrastructure, has estimated that 400,000 kettles will be boiled in households here after the royal couple exchange their vows, as the domestic television audience celebrates with cups of tea.
Westminster Abbey, the ancient white church overlooked by the Houses of Parliament, has been transformed by four tons of foliage, including eight 20-foot-high English field maple trees. A final wedding rehearsal took place there on Thursday morning.
Outside the Goring, a luxury hotel within yards of Buckingham Palace that is Miss Middleton’s base until the ceremony, plastic sheeting has been installed to prevent prying cameras from catching a glimpse of her before she arrives at the abbey on Friday.
But television pictures showed the arrival of a large clothes carrier, and a mysterious shrouded figure, and many have speculated that the carrier held the wedding dress and that the figure was its designer. The identity of the designer, and the details of the dress, have been the source of much debate and remain a closely held secret.
Prince William took a walk on the Mall, the broad avenue that approaches Buckingham Palace, on Thursday night. He greeted die-hard fans, many of them camped out in tents festooned with the British Union Jack. It was, for some, the high point of a second chilly night on the streets to secure a prime viewing spot for the royal procession.
A large portion of central London is being closed to traffic to handle the expected hundreds of thousands of revelers descending on the city.
The wedding’s guest list has been the source of some controversy. Former Prime MinistersTony Blair and Gordon Brown were not invited, though their predecessors, John Majorand Lady Thatcher, were. The crown prince of Bahrain voluntarily gave up his invitation last weekend in the face of criticism over violently suppressed protests in his country. And on Thursday, amid questions in British newspapers about the attendance of ambassadors from Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe, among others, the Syrian emissary to London, Sami Khiyami, had his place revoked.
William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, said in a statement that he had decided that Mr. Khiyami’s presence “would be unacceptable and that he should not attend” because of “this week’s attacks against civilians by the Syrian security forces, which we have condemned.”
The wedding guests are expected to range from the singer Elton John to Prince Albert II of Monaco and the leaders in Britain of faiths from the Church of England to Zoroastrianism.
Prince William, and his best man, Prince Harry, will arrive at Westminster at 10:15 a.m. London time, to be followed by the rest of the royal family 10 minutes later. At 11 a.m. the feverish speculation over Miss Middleton’s dress will be answered as she steps from a car into the abbey. Miss Middleton is eschewing the traditional horse-drawn carriage for her arrival to set a more austere tone, though the couple will still leave in one.
During the ceremony, according to details that were published online on Thursday night, Miss Middleton will not pledge to “obey” Prince William, as is traditional, but instead to “love, comfort, honor and keep” him. Afterward the couple will travel about a mile past the expected throngs to Buckingham Palace, and will appear on the palace balcony to wave to the cheering crowds at 1:25 p.m., a police statement said.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said that although Britain’s terrorism threat level remains at its second highest point, “severe,” which means an attack is highly likely, the force has “no specific information to suggest a specific threat to this event at this time.”
On Thursday 20 people were arrested across London in what the police described as “proactive” raids. The police confirmed that 19 people had been arrested for “abstracting electricity” as squatters, and that one was arrested in relation to previous incidents of protest disorder.
The arrests, the police force said, were “not specifically related to the royal wedding, but have been brought forward ahead of the event.”
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