5.45am
I leave my hotel near Trafalgar Square and count 15 police vans before I even start walking down the street. Many streets are closed off, with barriers called “Hostile Vehicle Mitigation Partners”. I’m heading to St James’s Park, by the Mall, where there is a large public screen.
6.30am
I’ve reached St James’s, after some borderline scary crowd surges along the way, despite the vast security presence. The queues for loos, coffees and food are already very, very long. Lots of people have brought rugs and camping chairs, and the park seems near capacity already.
7am
Sue Ivey and Kathleen O’Brien are wrapped in Union Jack “Oodies”; wearable blankets. They’re knocking back the Pimms for breakfast, and having a lively disagreement about Meghan Markle’s absence from the coronation.
“I think she should have come with Harry,” O’Brien says. “Supported her husband.”
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“It’s right she didn’t come,” Ivey says. “She ripped the family apart with her lies. As for Harry, he doesn’t want to be a royal any more, so why is he even here?”
7.15am
Friends Michelle Warde and Brenda Wright from Eastbourne are sporting gold nails, crown-themed jewellery, and God Save The King T-shirts.
“It’s a bittersweet day today,” Warde says. “I was a big fan of Diana. It should be her up there today, being crowned queen.”
7.45am
Emma Arts and Donna Anderson are Māori sisters from New Zealand, who are visiting England. They too are remembering Diana.
“Diana was the one who made an impact,” Anderson says. “Nobody else in the royal family has that charisma. Nobody else since ever made the kind of difference she did. It should have been her day today, if things had not worked out the way they did.”
[ King Charles officially crowned in Westminster Abbey ceremonyOpens in new window ]
“Meghan should be here today to face the music, after all she’s said about the royal family,” Arts says. “We’re not Meghan fans.”
It gradually strikes me over the course of some hours that nobody actually mentions the name of the man who is being crowned king today, Charles III. An absent duchess and a long-dead princess are the ghosts at this coronation banquet.
8am
Environmental law student MJ Mallam is wearing a navy blazer with gold buttons, a white shirt, tie and pale trousers. “Anyone can watch this on TV, but in 50 years, I will be able to say: I was there,” he says. “The coronation is a global event. It’s proof that our monarchy is the DNA of this country.”
9am
The “Big Screen” is indeed huge, but the trees around it are now in full spring bloom, and sight lines are restricted. It’s much harder to move around now. People have claimed their spaces, and thus their view, and are not budging one inch. There’s a polite inflexibility to the crowd that wasn’t there three hours earlier.
9.30am
It’s now pouring. Live coverage has started.
10.20am
The BBC commentator in her nice, dry office cheerily states: “Just a light drizzle outside. Nothing more than that.” The crowd around me guffaw in unison, umbrellas dripping, jackets soaked, plastic picnic rugs pooling water. Just after, the first big cheer goes up, as King Charles and Queen Camilla are pictured leaving Buckingham Palace in a carriage on their way to Westminster Abbey.
[ Coronation nation: Royal mood in Britain is as diverse as its peopleOpens in new window ]
During the next half-hour, the crowd “Awww” every time Prince George, acting as page, appears on screen. There is no cheer for Prince Andrew, who last year paid a £12 million settlement to a woman he claims he never met. Nor is there one for Harry. There is loud and spirited applause when William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, appear.
11.55am
A “trigger warning” text message flashes across the big screen to say guns will be fired at 12.01 – the minute King Charles will be crowned. The couple in front of me open a bottle of Pol Roger champagne and a box of quail’s eggs.
We then hear the ceremonial guns twice: one not far from us, and again on time-delay on-screen. The crowd are spontaneously on their feet, furiously waving flags, and shouting “God save the king!” A quail’s egg falls to the ground.
