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Will the horses never learn? The signs are clear: “Watch out! Horses may kick or bite.” But one of the latest tourists to get shocked at Horse Guards was last week, when the horse she was fussing with suddenly turned its head and bit her on the arm. She was unharmed, but it's understandable why the animals get angry sometimes – they are there to protect their king, after all – and a gentle message every now and then never hurts.
This little section of Whitehall is where the King's Guard operates, because it's still considered the official entrance to Buckingham Palace. The building once housed the offices of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. Prince Frederick (“the great old Duke of York”) and Wellington worked here; the latter's coffin was laid to rest in this room the night before his funeral. Today, the first floor is home to the excellent Household Cavalry Museum, where you can see the wooden leg used by the Earl of Uxbridge after his real leg was hit by a cannonball at the Battle of Waterloo. “Oh my goodness, I've lost my leg!” he cried. “Oh my goodness, so have you!” Wellington replied.
Look closely at the clock atop the building and you'll see that the two lower stones (inscribed “10” – the dial marks minutes, not hours) have black spots which are said to mark the time of Charles I's execution outside the Banqueting Hall across the road, on 30 January 1649. The spots are not of a regular shape so could mean an accidental blemish, but the authorities have definitely made no effort to clean it up so they clearly like this story as much as anyone.
The parade ground is notable as the site of the annual colour-raising ceremony, which originated from the practice of raising a flag (“standard”) for each regiment on the battlefield so that the regiments could stay together during battle. The ceremony used to take place on the monarch's birthday, but Edward VII's birthday was on November 9th and he didn't like the weather, so he moved his “official” birthday to the summer. In 1981, Marcus Sargent fired a blank shot at Queen Elizabeth; the week before, he Day of the Jackal He was introduced to The Devil's Plan (Frederick Forsyth's novel about a plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle) by a fellow university classmate – Shaun Williamson, who later played Barry in EastEnders.
Ten years later there was another assassination attempt at Horse Guards, when three mortar shells flew across Parade Square towards Number 10 Downing Street. The IRA were more professional than Sargent, but less fortunate. Markers had been left on Horse Guards Road, near the junction with Whitehall, to tell the driver of the van that fired the mortars exactly where they had parked. However, snowfall had obscured the marks, so the driver had to guess. The mortars missed and John Major survived.
During the 2012 Olympics, Horse Guards Parade was one of the most anticipated events. There was speculation that the Foreign Secretary might visit, but unfortunately this did not happen. “To the questioner,” Foreign Secretary William Hague tweeted, “I can't see beach volleyball from my office.” He did, however, admit that he had tried.
