The Lord Mayor of London

By far the most colourful public ceremony in the City of London takes place on the second Saturday of November each year. A great parade passing by the Mansion House in front of both the incoming and outgoing Lord Mayors and many other dignitaries. It is the Lord Mayors Show. This is the parade that accompanies the newly elected Lord Mayor’s entry into the post he will hold for the next year. Photo galleries >>

The new Lord Mayor is taken to the Royal Courts of Justice in the ceremonial coach. The six Shire horses that pull the coach were supplied by the Whitbread Brewery in the City, but since it’s closure they come from Young’s brewery. Before making this journey the Lord Mayor will take the salute and watch the vast array of floats and marching groups along with the outgoing Mayor and dignitaries as they pass by the Mansion House. They watches from a scaffold gantry that is erected every year in front of Mansion House, now his residence for the coming year in office. He then joins the procession at the rear as it makes it’s way down Cheapside towards Saint Paul’s Cathedral.
The tradition of this parade goes back to 1215 when King John proclaimed that the new Mayor must obtain Royal approval, or in the absence of the sovereign, approval from the Royal Justices. As time passed, the latter became the norm. There was not such a great spectacle at this time but in the sixteenth century it began to take on the pageantry and develop into the public display it is today. Until the Royal Courts of Justice opened in the strand in the 1800’s the destination of the procession had always been Westminster. I attended the show myself for the first time in 2006.

The route has been fixed to its present one since 1952. Before that it was changed each year to pass through the new Lord Mayor's ward. In days of old he rode on horseback or went on a barge via the River Thames depending which route was chosen. After Sir Gilbert Heathcote was unseated by a drunken flower girl in 1710 state coaches replaced horses. The last time the Thames was used as part of the route was in 1856. The State Coach used for the journey was built in 1757 at a cost of £1,065. 0s. and 3d.
The Great Twelve Livery Companies, bands, the military, and organizations that the Lord Mayor wishes to support such as charities, old schools and his employer before he became Lord Mayor are all invited to take part. Two giant reproductions of Gog and Magog (originally one called Gogmagog) are also there each year. On the way to he Royal Courts of Justice the Lord Mayor spends some time at a ceremony at Saint Paul’s, where he receives the blessing from the Dean. The procession is so long that the Lord Mayor has yet to leave the Mansion House when the first float has reached the final destination. A firework display ends the ceremonies in the evening.