The purpose of this site is to make sure that you enjoy the Show and have a great day out. It includes maps, travel guidance, background information and details of the procession and the timetable for the day. All of that information will be published here as it becomes available, which is usually in September. Until then we will leave up the pages from last year, which should give you a general idea of how it all works.
The Lord Mayor’s procession winds through nearly 800 years of London’s history, marching unscathed through everything from the black death to the blitz. In the 17th century it was inconvenienced by the building site that would later become St Paul’s Cathedral. In the twentieth it was the first event ever to be broadcast live on television. In the 21st, it’s a day out for half a million people, with millions more watching on the BBC.
July: grandstand seats are selling fast: book yours before they’re all gone.
The loyalty of the Lord Mayor is probably less questionable now than it was in 1215, but the newly elected Mayor must still make his way to the Royal Courts of Justice to pledge allegiance to the Crown, just as Dick Whittington did in 1397 (and again in 1406 and 1419). As you watch the Lord Mayor’s coach go by, remember that someone stood in exactly that spot 450 years ago and marvelled at the sight of a camel on its way to meet Elizabeth I.
The modern procession is over three miles long – 1.3 miles longer than the route it follows – and starts at 11am after an RAF flypast. It travels from Mansion House to the Royal Courts of Justice, where the Lord Mayor takes an oath of allegiance to the sovereign before the Lord Chief Justice and the judges of the Queen’s Bench Division. The procession sets off on the return journey from Victoria Embankment to Mansion House at 1pm and returns to Mansion House at about 2.30, then the day finishes with one of London’s grandest firework displays at 5 o’clock from a barge moored in the Thames between Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges.
