THE CORONATION

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21975, 26 December 1936, Page 17

THE CORONATION

♦ — — preparations FOR THE great PAGEANT sightseers by the million (From Our Special Correspondent) LONDON, ’ preparations for the Coronation of vjng George and Queen Elizabeth move steadily forward. The English love pageantry, and flock to the city in countless thousands, merely to see the Lord Mayor’s annual procession through the streets. How to control :: and handle the vast crowds that will converge on the route of the Corona- ■ tton procession must be giving the ••■authorities a few headaches. When the last Coronation ceremony took place in 1910, motor transport was ~in its infancy. Trains and trams earned the bulk of the people to and from the city. To-day the carrying Tenacity of the trains, tubes, and trams i» greater than ever, and, in addition, an enormous number of buses _ and other vehicles are available to bring visitors to London from ail parts ot -Great Britain. . , v : The occasion of the funeral of King George V. revealed some of the possibilities of the situation that the authorities will have to cope with. Whenever there is a great congestion of traffic in the streets, which occurs at 9 o’clock every morning, and again between 6 and 7 o’clock in the evening of every working day, people .avail themselves of the tube as the quickest way of reaching their destination. On the day of King George’s funeral the in the streets was so great, and the crowd at the tube exits so dense, that blockages occurred, and people who had taken a ticket to stations in the heart of the city could not get above ground. Thousands had to go back the way they came or proceed to some station a considerable distance further on. In the streets the conges?tion was extraordinary. At least it was warm and dry in the tubes. Above ground it was bitterly cold and wet, but in spite of the weather, enormous numbers of people had been waiting along the route since daylight. On the occasion of the Coronation. It is expected that many will spend • the night in the street so as to be lure of a position from which they will r get a “close-up” of the King and •'■Queen as they pass. ; -Meantime, speculation in seats and iccommodation is rife. The distance that will be travelled by the processions is said to be a little over six ■ miles. Some 5000 persons can stand side by Side in each mile, and if the . jpws of sightseers are 20 deep, it is .obvious that there is room for more u flan a million on the footpaths and in the roadway, apart from stand accom,modation, uostairs windows, balconies, etc. Fabulous Prices for Positions .'■Some fabulous prices are being asked for favoured positions. Occupiers of flats overlooking the route want from £IOO to £SOO for the use of their rooms for the day. Single seats from iflrtt floor windows near the Abbey are on offer at prices up to 50 guineas, and it is said that many have been booked already on behalf of wealthy Americans. In spite of this, it should bo .possible to get good seats at a mode- ; rate figure, and the travel agencies are advising their clients not to book - either seats or accommodation at extravagant prices. The Office of Works is inviting ten- . derg for stands on portions of the route through public parks and on Govern-ment-owned sites. These are intended to hold about 100,000 people, and it is ..expected that the seats will be available at £2 2s. This provision will have a moderating influence on the ■ demands of those individuals who nave been buying up frontages to erect , Jrivate stands and selling the seats at , tency prices. There is just one risk . that any purchaser of a seat runs; it is that unless he arrives bright and early he may never be able to reach 1 it i jtoing to the density of the crowd. This happened in many instances on the occasion of the late King’s funeral. By the express desire of the King, special accommodation is to be provided for about 30,000 school children, ■ and the lucky ones selected out of the ■ bullions of boys and girls who would' like to be there will have something = Worth telling to their grandchildren in years to come. Hotel Accommodation * So far as hotel accommodation in Coronation week is concerned, most of the leading hotels have been booked out for months past. Hotels of standmg are not exploiting the situation unduly, and are content with fair .prices, particularly in respect to their tegular customers. Others are out to reap a harvest. Private hotels and boarding-houses which at ordinary times are glad to take guests at 10s ? day want 30s a day and more dur- ■ JUJI the Coronation festivities, and .vary, high prices are being asked for bats. Persons who are renting apartments for anything from £5 to £lO a week seem to think that they will have ; b0 difficulty in sub-letting them to Coronation visitors for £IOO for a Week’s occupancy. Presumably, the btWlers of these flats will go to the rjeaside and be content with a view of rae Coronation from a seat in a cinema. ; Seeing that it has been decided to '“tew the actual ceremony in the ’•Abbey to be filmed, they may have the , 6 ast of it in the end. ■ «ie hotel accommodation is to be ! *ugmented by the enterprise of shiph ®“ig. companies, many of whom have applied for permission to anchor Reamers in the Thames. It is esti®*ted that these floating hotels will for at least 12,000 visitors. The *brt of London Authority can take vessels up to 6000 tons as far as LonP° n Bridge, and there is room for 20 ®r 30 fairly large steamers above Gravesend.