Above, a picture of the replicas of the Crown Jewels used during the dress rehearsals for the Coronation Ceremony at the Abbey. Several dress rehearsals were held in the days before the Coronation, including one with the presence of HM The Queen, while other members of the Royal Family attended on different days. Below, two pictures of the Abbey during the months it was closed for the preparation of the galleries where the thousands of guests would take place.

Three pictures of the Abbey prepared for the Coronation, with a splendour difficult to describe. On the left, the Queen’s Throne, created for the occasion. In the middle, a view of the Theatre of the Coronation, with the Throne in the middle of a dais and St. Edward’s Chair in front. The elegance of the decoration is clearly visible. On the right, St. Edward’s or the Coronation Chair, next to the Chair of State where the Queen sat during the initial part of the ceremony and the gallery of the members of the Royal Family.

Three different views of the nave of Westminster Abbey, through which thousands of guests, dozens of members of royal families and world leaders and, most importantly, The Queen would go by on Coronation Day.

Part of the decoration of the Abbey were The Queen’s Beasts, then sculptures of which three are shown: on the left, the Falcon of the Plantagenets; in the middle, the Lion of England; and on the right, the Unicorn of Scotland.

The rehearsals of the Coronation were carried on day after day, on the week preceding the coronation. The wife of the first Peer of the Kingdom, the Duchess of Norfolk, took the Queen’s position during most of the rehearsals. All those who would take part in the procession through the nave of Westminster Abbey took part in the various rehearsals, except for the members of the Royal Family who attended only one each. In the picture the Duchess of Norfolk wears a crown and a robe similar to the one the Queen would wear and the two bishops walk with her as they would with the Queen.

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