The Lord Mayor’s Show 2019

City News
The new Lord Mayor Alderman William Russell

The Lord Mayor’s Show at 804 years old has been a fixture of London life for centuries, from its origins as a way to make the city behave, through medieval carnival and imperial spectacle to become the world’s greatest unrehearsed civic procession and the longest-running TV show.

The modern Show is a diverse parade of over 6000 people, with dozens of marching bands, military detachments, carriages, dance troupes, inflatables, giant contraptions and ceremonial displays. Every year is different and surprising, combining London’s ancient pomp, rowdy patchwork heritage and modern dynamism to create a spectacle unlike anything else in the world.

In a pageant that that is held on the second Saturday of November each year the City of London welcomes its new Lord Mayor after he or she is installed the previous evening in the ‘Silent Ceremony‘.  This equally ancient ceremony is unique; apart from the Lord Mayor Elect subscribing to the declaration, as its name implies, no words are spoken. The ceremony is witnessed by the Aldermen and the City officers and is as rich in pageantry as it is ancient in history.  Although it only lasts some twenty minutes, it is another great piece of theatre.

The ‘Silent Ceremony’