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If you’ve already seen Changing the Guard a few times and you want to try something a bit different then head round the side of St James’s Palace before the parade starts. If you stand opposite Friary Court then you can watch the St James detachment form up in the square before they head down the Mall. It just allows you to get a bit closer to the soldiers without having to negotiate the crowd of thousands outside Buckingham Palace.
Changing the guard, windsor castle
We went to London a couple of years ago and this was taken on our last day. We had planned to go to the Buckingham Palace that day to see the Changing the Guard and it just happened to be on Prince George’s birthday so they had special celebrations. There were thousands of people there and it was quite difficult to move. I got separated from my friends at one point so I managed to squeeze to the front of the crowd to the gates (it helped that I’m small) and managed to take this photo, along with many others!
Photography by Dushy
The next time you’re standing outside Buckingham Palace try telling which of the five Foot Guard regiments a soldier is from by looking at his jacket buttons. The Grenadier Guards have a single row of buttons down the front (like the guy in the photo). The Coldstream Guards have their buttons arranged in pairs. The Scots Guards have them arranged in triplets, whilst the Irish Guards have their buttons in fours. And the Welsh Guards have their buttons in fives.
Everyone knows about Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace but there are plenty more daily parades in London. There’s another Changing the Guard ceremony at Horse Guards, plus the Dismounting Ceremony at 4 o’clock, and here’s one of the Foot Guards at Windsor Castle. You can also see soldiers standing outside St James’s Palace and guarding Waterloo Barracks at the Tower of London.
The next time you're watching Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace take a close look at the buttons on the soldier's red coat, because that's how you can tell which regiment he's in. This particular soldier must be in the Grenadier Guards because the buttons are evenly spaced all the way down the front. If they were arranged in pairs then he would be in the Coldstream Guards. The Scots Guards have them in threes, the Irish Guards have them in fours, and the Welsh Guards have them in fives.
