Royalists have been left in awe after witnessing the stunning Gold State Coach rolling through the streets of London, transporting King Charles III and Queen Camilla from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace today (6 May).
However, not anybody can just jump aboard the historic carriage and ride off into the sunset - only a sovereign and their consort are actually permitted to travel inside.
This means that the only living people today that can say they’ve taken a ride in the Gold State Coach are King Charles III and Queen Camilla, as the previous two travellers were late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip.
Advert
Interestingly, the Gold State Coach cost £7,562 to make in 1762, which would equal about £2 million now.
Because of it's worth, it' also only hauled out for special royal occasions which includes being used for the coronation of every monarch since it was built.
To travel to the ceremony, King Charles and Queen Camilla opted to use a modern, less-flashy Diamond Jubilee State Coach.
When Queen Elizabeth II was coronated back in 1953, she described the bumpy five-mile journey back to Buckingham Palace as 'horrible'.
Despite the late Queen having an unpleasant journey, the Golden State Coach’s inside is reportedly pretty comfortable to sit in as it is decked out in crushed velvet and silky satin.
While the inside is daintily decorated, the outside features equally opulent paintings of Roman gods and goddesses, as well as intricate cherub sculptures.
Despite its name, the carriage isn’t actually made of pure gold. Instead, the four-tonne monster has been crafted from gilt wood - wood covered with a delicate layer of gold leaf.
For many royalists, this is their first time seeing the Gold State Carriage in all of its glory, and social media users have had a lot to say on the topic.
One Twitter user wrote: “I like that the UK monarchs have this uncomfortable gold carriage that they all hate riding in, but they have to anyway because people like looking at it and it's too fancy to get rid of.”
Another called it 'a gigantic, flamboyant statement from a new empire drunk on its own surprising success'.
A third agreed with previous sentiments and wrote: “The gold royal carriage is the most pompous thing I’ve ever seen.”
Elsewhere, one viewer said that they couldn’t believe that 'the carriage is 4 tons of gold', which of course, you know now that it isn’t.
While the coronation is a stunning spectacle, it has cost individual tax payers a wedge of cash.
It's estimated that the royal event will set the taxpayer back around £100 million, and with over 27 million taxpayers in the UK, that means each of us will have contributed about £3.59.
Topics: Celebrity, Coronation, King Charles III, UK News
Ella Scott