Steeped in history and tradition, the ceremonial Trooping the Colour takes place in the heart of London every year in June and is attended by thousands of spectators. Also known as The Queen’s Birthday, Trooping the Colour offers a great opportunity to see the Queen and other members of the British Royal Family.
When and Where is Trooping the Colour?
Trooping the Colour also marks the Queen’s Official Birthday and takes place in London every year in June, on the second Saturday of the month.
There’s a specific route for the ceremony that’s followed to the letter every year, with inspections, salutes and more taking place at set stages of the route. The parade begins at Buckingham Palace, going down the beautiful tree-lined avenue called The Mall, to Horse Guard’s Parade in Whitehall, then comes back to Buckingham Palace. You can apply for tickets for the seated stands that are set up around Horse Guard’s Parade (see below) but no tickets are required if you want to stand along The Mall..
In 2010 Trooping the Colour and the Queen’s Official Birthday Parade will take place on Saturday 12 June, beginning at approximately 10am.
The central location of Buckingham Palace, The Mall and Horse Guard’s Parade makes getting to the ceremony easy. There are several London Underground stations nearby, and many of London’s most famous landmarks and attractions are nearby too. After the parade you could enjoy a picnic in St James Park, or Green Park, visit Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament. There’s so much to see and do in London that you may as well make a weekend of it!
Stay in style in one of London’s smartest hotels like The Ritz London,
The May Fair, or
Hilton London Green Park, all situated close by to the Trooping the Colour ceremony, or stay a little further away in one of the hundreds of other hotels in the UK’s capital city.
What is Trooping the Colour?
Trooping the Colour is a ceremony that dates back hundreds of years, taking place as an official event since the 17th century, even though its roots go back even further than this. You can read more about the origins of Trooping the Colour in the ‘History of Trooping the Colour’ below.
As a spectator at this regal event you’ll have the opportunity to see over 1400 officers and men parading, including four hundred musicians. With them will be around two hundred horses. They all parade from Buckingham Palace, along The Mall to Horse Guard’s Parade in Whitehall. The musicians are actually from ten different bands and corps though they all march and play together as one, so you can imagine the high volume that the drumming produces!
You’ll get a good view of the parade from along The Mall, but the Royal Salute and the Queen’s Inspection take place within Horse Guard’s Parade, so unless you have tickets you won’t be able to see this part of the ceremony in person. The whole spectacle is always broadcast on the BBC though so you could record the programme and watch it later if you have access to a TV and video!
At 11 o’clock precisely the Queen and the rest of the Royal Procession arrives at Horse Guard’s and after the Royal Salute the Queen is driven slowly around the arena to make an Inspection of the Guards and the Household Cavalry.
If you have tickets for this part of the ceremony you’ll be witness to many traditional formalities, including the actual ‘Trooping of the Colour’. There is lots more drumming and marching as more troops enter on horseback.
Once this part of Trooping the Colour is complete the marching bands will lead out back onto The Mall for the procession back to Buckingham Palace. Behind the marching bands comes the Queen, who travels in front of her Foot Guards and the whole 1,400 of them will be seen as they pass by the spectators again on The Mall.
Standing in front of Buckingham Palace you’ll get a good view of the final part of the Trooping the Colour and Queen’s Birthday Ceremony as they all file back into the grounds of the palace. Up on the balcony stand other members of the Royal Family as the daily Changing of the Guard ceremony also takes place. A 41-gun salute is given by the King’s Troop from Green Park, then the Queen herself arrives up at the balcony. The event finale is marked by a noisy and spectacular flypast by the Royal Air Force.
A History of Trooping the Colour
So what exactly does Trooping the Colour mean? Well the roots of this tradition go back hundreds of years to the times when clans and tribes used to be known by the specific colours they wore into battle. The wearing of colours continued, but it’s been an actual tradition of the British infantry regiments since the 17th century.
The colours of the regiment, or their flag, would be displayed when going in to battle. The troops were encouraged to learn their own colours so that the flags could be used as rallying points throughout the battle, where troops could go to hear new orders or to re-group. The way they learnt their colours was to have someone slowly march, or ‘troop’ in between the soldiers so that they could study their colours and know them well; hence the term Trooping the Colour!
This same procedure would be done after a battle as well to show everyone that the colours were still intact i.e. there were still soldiers alive from that regiment, and the colours hadn’t been taken by the enemy. Today of course the ritual is mostly ceremonial.
From 1748 onwards it was decided that the Trooping the Colour ceremony would also be used to mark the official birthday of the British king or queen, so this is why the event is also known as The Queen’s Birthday. Queen Elizabeth II was actually born in April, but this tradition of celebrating in June was chosen so that all the people could enjoy the occasion on a nice summer day!
Tickets for Trooping the Colour
There are two ways you can get to see Trooping the Colour in person. You can simply turn up on the day and pick a spot somewhere along The Mall, or just outside Buckingham Palace where you will see the parade passing by twice. There are no tickets required for this so it’s a free event, but you’re advised to arrive early to get a good place from which to see.
Alternatively you can apply for tickets for the Trooping the Colour ceremony that takes place in Horse Guard’s Parade. There are only a limited number of tickets available and always more applications for tickets than there are seats, so tickets are made available through a ballot system which is totally random. Applications for these tickets must be made only in January and February and the ballot takes place in March. So for 2010 you’ve already missed the boat, but you can still travel to London and spend an enjoyable day on The Mall. For further information about this process visit the Official Website of the British Monarchy.