What Is The Surface In Horse Guards Parade?

Access to the Horse Guards Parade is level and easily approached from the adjacent pavement. The surface is gravelled and may make it hard for some wheelchair users to negotiate.

What are the Horse Guards guarding?

Horse Guards is the building with a clock tower over an archway, and remains the official entrance to St James’s and Buckingham Palace.
Next to Horse Guards is:

• Dover House.
• the Cabinet and Privy Council Offices.
• No. 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister.

Where is Horse Guard made?

Plus I love that it is made here in Oregon. I love locally produced stuff!” “My family first started using Horse Guard years ago, with our very first horse.

Can you walk through Horse Guards?

Visiting The Horse Guards Parade
Only members of the royal family or cavalrymen on duty are allowed to travel through the archway; however, tourists are free to walk through from Whitehall to the Horse Guards Parade and St. James’s Park.

What are the Horse Guards called?

Overview. 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.

What are the feathers on the Horse Guards helmets?

Current wear
The Life Guards retain the white plume and the onion from the 2nd Regiment, the Blues and Royals retain the red plume of the Royal Horse Guards. The plume is 20 inches (51 cm) long and made from horsehair or nylon for other ranks in both regiments.

What are the buildings around Horse Guards?

The Horse Guards building, completed in 1759, originally housed barracks and government offices. Adjacent to the Horse Guards building is a large courtyard, Horse Guards Parade, where the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony is held in the presence of the reigning monarch.

Is Horse Guards Parade covered in sand?

Most of the parade ground was covered in sand but there was a cleared pathway from the roadway at the rear of the parade ground through to the archways in the Horse Guard’s building. Photo opportunities abound across the parade ground.

Why is it called Horse Guards?

Horse Guards, named after the troops who have protected the Sovereign since the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, is today the official entrance to Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace.

What do the Horse Guards look like?

The guard is usually provided by the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, which consists of a squadron from each of the Household Cavalry regiments; the Life Guards who wear red tunics and white helmet-plumes, and the Blues and Royals who wear blue tunics and red plumes.

Why do Horse Guards wear big hats?

Why do the guards wear bearskin hats? The hats can be traced back to the Napoleonic wars, when every gunner in the British military and the French military wore bearskin caps to make them taller and more intimidating. These were typically the soldiers involved in hand-to-hand fighting.

What are the Horse Guards hats made of?

bear fur
The hats are known as bearskins because — you guessed it — they’re made of bear fur. The pelts come from Canadian black bears (Ursus americanus) that are culled each year to control their numbers.

Are there female horse guards?

Today, there are 42 mounted, trained female members of the Household Cavalry, holding ranks from trooper to lance corporal of horse. The first woman to join the ranks, Nina Croker, was recruited back in 2018 after a change in the Household Cavalry policy. Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage?

What are the white feathers in the guards helmets?

Hackles are the feathered headdress embellishments worn by some British Army infantry units, especially Fusilier regiments. Plumes tend to be made from horse-hair and are typically worn by Guards regiments on their bearskin caps.

Can you drive down Horse Guards Parade?

Although only members of the Royal Family or cavalrymen on duty are allowed to drive or ride through the archway, visitors and tourists are free to walk through from Whitehall to Horse Guards Parade and St James’s Park.

How long do the Horse Guards stand for?

Guardsmen will have two hours on sentry duty and four hours off. However, do not be surprised if on some occasions you do not see the traditional guardsmen, in their scarlet tunics, particularly in August when other regiments often guard ‘The King’.

What are helmet plumes made of?

A plume is a special type of bird feather, possessed by egrets, ostriches, birds of paradise, quetzals, pheasants, peacocks and quails. They often have a decorative or ornamental purpose, commonly used among marching bands and the military, worn on the hat or helmet of the wearer.

How heavy is a Guards bearskin?

1.5 pounds
The standard bearskin for the British foot guards is 11 inches (280 millimetres) tall at the front, 16 inches (410 millimetres) to the rear, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.68 kilograms), and is made from the fur of the Canadian black bear.

What do guards wear on their heads?

The tradition of wearing bearskins on ceremonial occasions and for guard duty continues to this day. These headdresses are made with real bearskins. Each hat is 18 inches (46 cm) tall, and weighs 1.5 pounds (. 7 kg).

What is the ivy covered building on Horse Guards Parade?

The Citadel
Behind Horse Guards stands a rather imposing and somewhat ugly brown lump of a building, semi covered in ivy. This is the Citadel, a bomb proof bunker built during World War Two to house the Royal Navy operations unit, and still in use to this day.

What is the building next to Horse Guards Parade?

The Admiralty Citadel
The Admiralty Citadel
This rather grandly named, monstrosity of a building is right in the centre of London, backs on to The Mall which leads from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace, looks over Horse Guards Parade and is a hop and a skip from St James’s Park.