Number-crunching at the Lord Mayor’s Show 2008
Friday 26 September 2008
The final weeks of preparation are under way for the Lord Mayor’s Show on Saturday 8th November as the participant list is confirmed.
The 2008 Show will feature:
- 6,100 participants
- 220 vehicles – including a Sherman tank from WW2, vintage buses, taxis, two steamrollers, a fleet of Morris Minors and a horse-drawn Santa sleigh!
- 21 carriages – including the 251-year-old gold, Lord Mayor’s State Coach
- 71 floats – including four sponsored by the City of London Corporation
- 200 horses – 115 of which are military horses
- 13 marching bands
- 120 marshals
In a blend of history and modernity, Carnival dancers will perform along side top club DJs, military marching bands and Hong Kong acrobats as the 3.1mile-long parade winds its way through the streets of the City of London, from the Mansion House to the Courts of Justice via St Paul’s Cathedral and back.
A military flypast over Mansion House at 11am marks the beginning of the parade to celebrate the inaugural outing of the 681st Lord Mayor of the City of London. The procession travels from Mansion House to St Paul’s Cathedral, where the new Lord Mayor is blessed by the Dean of St Paul’s before the procession carries on to the Royal Courts of Justice. There the Lord Mayor swears an oath of allegiance to the sovereign before the Lord Chief Justice and Judges of the Queen’s Bench Division, as enshrined in the charter of King John (the original of which can be viewed at the Museum of London).
The processions then sets off at 1pm on the return journey along Victoria Embankment to Mansion House, where the newly sworn-in Lord Mayor arrives to be greeted by the City Aldermen and livery company Masters in their colourful gowns.
The day culminates in a fireworks extravaganza between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges on the Thames from 5pm.
