Preparing for the Coronation

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 12 (Supplement)

Preparing for the Coronation

By MOLLY PHILLIPS

Empire s Great Capital Will be a Floodlit

Fairy City

(Copyright)

LONDON, Dec. 14 A T the forthcoming Coronation A of King George VJ. London's guests will include the reigning Kings and Queens and the liileis and potentates of all the gieat nations, nian\ of whom will be gi\en suites at Buckingham Palace, where alterations in the State apartments are being made to receive thcin.^ The. transformation of London into a floodlit fairy city, to which, next May, visitors will ilock from &11 parts of the world, to witness the most brilliant pageant of the century, is in the hands of those men whose job it is to provide a fitting setting for the great celebrations. Ono of the largest undertakings is that of the municipal and transport authorities, who will have to provide

for at least 3.000,000 visitors. All the world is coming to London, and travel arrangements are already well in hand. Intreased services will be organised by the shipping companies, while all ioilr principal Rnglish main line railway companies will run extra trains, and the London Passer,ger Transport Board

is preparing for at least a quarter of a million more passengers than on May (j last year (Jubilee Day). Although hotels are expecting an unprecedented rush, they are confident that there will be room for all. Accommodation has already been reserved tor applicants from as far away as j>e\v Zealand, Tasmania anu tho r alkland Islands. , . The wise will arrive well ahpad ot Coronation Day to avoid the crush at the end of A m il and early in May. They will be just in time to see London undergoing its transformation. The Office of Works will be completing huge grandstands tor 50,000 or more spectators in Hyde Park, Green lark and the Mall, and a great fabric annexe to Westminster Abbey in Broad Sanctuary, for marshalling the Coronation procession—not to mention the pvlons and festooned standards to support the decorations devised by several famous architects. The work is already creating employment for thousands of extra people. Staffordshire is busy producing newCoronation mugs; huge orders tor flags and bunting will keep factories working at top pressure until next May, while the firework manufacturers are preparing to cope with a great influx of orders from overseas as well as from the Home markets. . Foreign competitors have been making a strong bid for orders for flags, but one English firm stated that it was confident of being able to meet the demand, and thus keep it <lll all-British Coronation. In Westminster Abbey Early in the New Year, Westminster Abbey will be closed to the public when the Office of Works will be busy erecting stands and galleries, renovating the interior and installing the dais on which the King will be enthroned. It will not be reopened until the day the King is crowned amid scenes of solemnity and splendour. "The Royal Crown has already been moved from the lower, and is at the jewellers, being reshaped. As a guide, the craftsmen use an. ordinary liatshape of the King's head. Emblems, unused for a quarter of a century, are about to bo brought into service again. There are two Sceptres —one with the cross, to be held by the King in the right hand, the other, bearing 7i dove, to be grasped in the left. Then there is /the King, or historic "wedding ring" of England, an ensign of Kingly dignity, which originated in the famous legend of Edward tho Confessor. The legend says that tho King drew the ring from his finger and gave it as alms to a beggar at his palace gates. The beggar proved to bo St. John the Evangelist, who afterwards returned the gift to the King by the hands of two pilgrims to whom the Saint revealed himself in the Holy Land. The Crown, most important item of the regalia, is always used for the CoronaAbout 200 new peers created since the last Coronation, have placed orders for their robes (£2OO a set). A limited number of robes of peerages that have become extinct, may be hired. Those who buy their Coronation dress will

have to pay about £25 for a coronet, which is made of silver and silver-gilt. The robes with the ermine trimmings may cost £IOO. In addition, full-dress uniform or Court dress must be worn. These may be hired at a fee from £5 to £2O, but to purchase, with lace collar and cuffs and sword, cost anything be-, tween £45 and £7O. Peers, carry their coronets at Coronations, and they are placed 011 their heads only when the Archbishop of Canterbury places the crown on the King's head. Meanwhile, in the social world, plans are under way for festivities eclipsing those of tho Silver Jubilee. There will be no lack of entertainments for tho visitors. Theatres, music-halls and cabarets will all be playing full houses, while great artists like Kreislcr, Grace Moore and others, are to give recitals, in April and May. Even inero man. has not been forgotten. Cloth manufacturers are busily preparing dazzling new cloths to make this the brightest season for men our age has known. Light blues, greenish greys and something with a good splash of red in it —these are the sort of colours they are getting ready. For women, red and blue will be the predominating shades for Coronation wear, and purple-Koyal purple—is bound to be popular.

There is a brisk demand for scats along the route of the profession. Requests for the seats are now arriving in London by tho hundred, every day. in many cases negotiations for tho renting of suitable premises are still in an early stage, as sums varying from .CoOOQ to £IO,OOO arc being asked of tho booking agents for the onc-dav hire of single buildings. Two firms in the United States have already reserved blocks of 1000 seats each in the stands in Piccadilly. Hospitals will be among those who will benefit. Over 2000 seats will be available at Westminster Hospital, alone, ranging in price from five to fifty guineas, l'rofits will be.devoted to the hospital's rebuilding fund. -Many of tho seats, including those at fifty guineas, have been sold. In fact, it was stated recently that only about 200 remained unsold. Inquiries for seats, some of them misspelled; written on odd scraps of paper, are also coming in from labouring and mining families in tho north of Etigland, whoso weekly family income can barely equal the minimum price of a seat; yet they declare themselves ready to pay the sums asked. Such is the interest. in this year's Royal pageantry, in Britain, and indeed, in practically everv country in the world.