King Charles coronation route: Procession route quarter of the length of the late Queen’s journey with Gold State Coach set for use

The King’s coronation procession stretches to just 1.3 miles – around a quarter of the length of the late Queen’s five-mile celebratory journey.

A newly crowned Charles and Queen Consort will make their way back from Westminster Abbey via the tried and tested route of Parliament Square, along Whitehall, around Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch and down The Mall back to Buckingham Palace.

It will be the reverse of their route to the Abbey but much shorter than Elizabeth II’s five-mile return expedition around central London which saw the 27-year-old monarch waving to crowds along Piccadilly, Oxford Street and Regent Street.

The grand procession in 1953 took two hours and featured tens of thousands of participants, with the two-and-a-half mile cavalcade taking 45 minutes to pass any given point.

Charles’s shorter route is understood to have been chosen for practical reasons, with a preference for the familiar journey used on many a royal occasion.

He will travel back in the Gold State Coach, famously criticised by many monarchs for being uncomfortable, including Elizabeth II.

Martin Oates, senior carriage restorer at the Royal Mews, will walk behind the four-tonne carriage in the King’s coronation procession and act as the “brake man” pulling the hand-held T-bar at the back to secure it in place when it stops.

Only a sovereign and their consort are permitted to travel in the historic Gold State Coach, which is more than 260 years old.

Charles and the Queen Consort will use it for the first time on their journey back to Buckingham Palace after being crowned in Westminster Abbey on May 6.

Their outward trip to the abbey will be made in the more comfortable, modern Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which Mr Oates described as more like a car with its mod-cons of air conditioning and hydraulic shock absorbers.

Mr Oates said of the Gold State Coach: “When you’re following it, you can hear it creaking so it sounds like an old galleon going along.

“It’s not quite a washing machine, but where other vehicles just go from back to front, this is moving from side to side.”

Mr Oates said the four original leather straps which support the body of the Gold State Coach, which dates from 1762, were replaced 15 years ago.

“When we actually took them off, they were different sizes,” he said.

“Now they’re all the same size so that could actually help towards the fact that it actually runs a lot better.”

Elizabeth II once described her journey to and from the coronation in the bumpy Gold State Coach as “horrible”.

A hot water bottle was strapped under her seat to keep her warm during the unseasonably cold day in June 1953.

The Queen’s journey to her crowning on June 2 1953 was 1.6 miles, taking in a slightly longer route than Charles’s by making her way along the Victoria Embankment by the River Thames.

Unlike the Queen, Charles and Camilla will travel to the Abbey in the more high-tech Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which is complete with mod-cons including air conditioning and shock absorbers.