The State Opening of Parliament

: Houses of Parliament, Parliament Square, Westminster, London51.499437 -0.124738
Date:: 9th May 2012 -- 11 AM
Tickets:: Free to watch. See parliament.uk
Buses:: 3 12 53 87 88 148 159 214 453 510 C10
Trains:: St. James’s Park CRC DSC, Westminster CRC DSC JUBNote: The best station for Houses of Parliament is Westminster. We can help you get there from any train station:
Train journey to Houses of Parliament
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The State Opening of Parliament is one of the highlights of the London year, and a chance to catch the Queen in all her pomp.

Her Majesty will start out from Buckingham Palace at 11 AM and travel down the Mall to Horse Guards. She will then travel down Whitehall to the Houses of Parliament in her gold state coach, attended by horsemen from the Household Cavalry. The entire procession will take around 15 minutes.

Members of the public cannot attend the state opening itself, but the Queen will proceed through the Sovereign's Entrance to the House of Lords where, in the Queen's Speech, she will deliver an outline of the Government's proposed policies for the coming session.

Note: You should arrive in plenty of time if you are planning on getting a good spot on the Mall. We recommend a bare minimum of at least one hour, and suggest you try for even more.

The Houses of Parliament are the seat of British Government. The legislature consists of two parts – the Commons and the Lords. The building also includes Big Ben and Westminster Hall, which dates back to 1097.

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Admin – “Just a reminder to everyone that it's the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday. This is one of the best parades of the year, and definitely worth a trip to London.… more”

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“After my trip to Trooping the Colour last year I was expecting about 500 horses, ten thousand soldiers and about fifty thousand marching bands. But there wasn't a lot of that at all. There was only really one or two bands, 100 hor…”

This event has been tagged with London events 9th May 2012, May 2012 whats on in London, London Drum has no association with this event or venue. Whilst we make every effort to ensure that the above information is accurate, events can be cancelled at any time, and the timings, prices and details can be amended without us being notified. You should therefore always reconfirm the details with the organisers before making any plans or purchases, as we will not be held responsible for any inaccuracies.