While the Coronation was occurring inside Westminster Abbey on June 2nd 1953, local celebrations were simultaneously enacted in cities and villages all across the country.
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| Andover |
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| Banbury |
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| Birmingham |
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| Cheshire |
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| Westmoreland |
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| Nottiingham |
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| London |
These scenes, preserved in black and white, seem already far more ancient than they really are. People in 1953 still lived in a mostly unmediated world. The coronation was in fact televised, but only the relatively wealthy had televisions to watch it on. Ordinary people arranged tables in the streets, strung up flags and banners, held solemn outdoor services, concocted miniature parades. Whatever their preferred form of celebration, they enacted something of their own in real life. Later, over the course of the summer, they could also stand in line to view the splendid empty robes displayed at the palace on mannequins.
