Platinum Jubilee Pageant

Jubilee festivities came to a grand finale today with the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, a spectacular parade up The Mall toward Buckingham Palace.  Though the crowds were dense, we were able to secure a fairly decent vantage point about halfway along The Mall and watched the entire procession.

The Queen waves to the crowd from her golden carriage.

1950s vintage dancers

1950s bus

1960s bus

1970s bus

1980s bus

Drag queen float

Joan Collins & her husband Percy are in the
middle foreground vehicle.

2000s bus

A better view of Joan & Percy on the jumbotron.

 

Trooping the Colour

It is a 4 day holiday weekend in the UK in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, marking Elizabeth II's 70 years upon the throne.  Thursday was the Trooping the Colour event on The Mall between Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards Parade.  Unfortunately, the crowds were so massive that we found ourselves trapped in St. James's Park, on the wrong side of the lake, with no access to The Mall.  We were able to catch some of the royal battalions as they approached the parade grounds from the Wellington Barracks.

Ticketed attendees had to adhere to a dress code.

Oxford Circus bedecked with jubilee banners.

A memorial to George Orwell at the BBC.

   

The Garden Museum

On the south bank of the River Thames in Lambeth, within the reconfigured interior of the medieval St. Mary-at-Lambeth church, is The Garden Museum, Britain's only museum devoted to the art & history of gardens.

The Prince of Wales, Royal Patron of 
The Garden Museum

Croquet, anyone?

In the 1950s, Woolworth's was Britain's biggest seller of
seeds & bulbs.

A garden gnome

museum courtyard

View from atop The Garden Museum's medieval tower.

Lambeth Palace, next door.  London home of the
Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lambeth Bridge

Tower entrance

Commes des Garcons cashmere
dress with clustered roses.

1950s evening dress with blue roses

The Garden Museum