Trip 49

January 20, 2025

We started out later in the day, but with the goal of visiting the King’s Horseguard at Saint James’s Park.

Entering St James’s Park from Birdcage Walk, we walked down towards the Horse Guard building ahead, passing the entrance to Churchill’s War Rooms bunker on the right, with the park and the lake to the left.

The star attractions in this portion of the park were the pelicans.

The King’s Life Guard is conducted by soldiers of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment at Horse Guards. Horse Guards is named after the troops who have mounted The King’s Life Guard here since the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660. Every weekday, whatever the season or weather, members of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment ride down from Hyde Park Barracks in Knightsbridge to take over guard duties.

We were there for the final change of the day. During most of the day the entrance to Horse Guards is guarded by two mounted sentries. After the duty officer has inspected them at 4:00pm, all personnel, mounted and dismounted, will come off duty for the day. 

There was a reasonable sized crowd outside the gate with some posing up near both of the mounted guards, but (not today) some have found out the hard way that the horses don’t appreciate their efforts and will bite. We stood inside the courtyard waiting for the ceremonies to begin. The two horse mounted sentries bring their mounts inside the gate (YouTube) and the regiment comes out from one side of the inner courtyard to join them. Everyone, including the horses, passed inspection.

Back to the hotel for a few hours before heading out to our play tonight at the King’s Theater (no, sad to say, King Charles was not there 😉) to see Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom of the Opera has been running in London’s West End since October 9, 1986. This makes it one of the longest-running shows in the West End. (Another long running play is Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap). We had better seats here than at Mama Mia, where the seats bumped up against the balcony. Obviously no photos from the performance, but it was a great cast and the staging was well done.