Steerpike Steerpike

Coronation carriage canned for Speaker Hoyle

UK Parliament/Steve Haywood

It’s less than a month to go until the Coronation and already the media are going mad for anything royal-related. A great hullabaloo has been raised over everything from the role of non-Anglican faiths in the Order of Service to the shortened route that the King’s procession will be taking, compared to the much longer journey in 1953. And so, in a bid to join in this passion for pageantry, Mr S thought he would make his own inquiries as to whether Lindsay Hoyle would be doing his own bit for proceedings by using the official Speaker’s State Coach.

This seventeenth century carriage has been used for every coronation since 1831 and was last wheeled out for the King’s wedding to Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1981. It is the oldest of the three great State coaches – alongside equivalent carriages for the monarch and Lord Mayor of London. Since 2011 it has been loaned out to the National Trust’s Arlington Court Carriage Museum in Devon, where more than £11,000 has been lavished on restoring the £1.6 million coach to its highest glory. But despite all this history, the parliamentary authorities are not keen to restore the carriage to its role at the centre of public life. For a spokesperson for the House of Commons has today confirmed to Mr S that: ‘The Speaker State Coach is a heritage item and will not be used in the Coronation procession.’

Whatever happened to pomp and circumstance eh?

Join The Spectator's Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and guest Camilla Tominey from the Daily Telegraph for a special edition of Coffee House Live covering what kind of monarch Charles III will be, and whether the coronation will distract voters from the Tories’ predicted heavy losses in the local elections. 10 May from 7pm. Book your tickets today: spectator.co.uk/coronation

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Steerpike
Written by
Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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