The Changing of the Guard ceremony has been performed at Buckingham Palace for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Queen was not there to watch the proceedings as she is still on her annual break at Balmoral in Scotland, but many tourists gathered to watch the colourful military spectacle – with the musical backdrop celebrating Team GB’s Olympic success.

One of the most time-honoured traditions at the monarch’s London home, the Changing of the Guard was halted in March 2020 to avoid large crowds of tourists gathering during lockdown and potentially spreading COVID-19.

But the familiar sight returned on Monday, with the new guard, the 1st Battalion the Coldstream Guards, dressed in their scarlet tunics and famous bearskin hats. They marched from nearby Wellington Barracks to the palace to take over the duty from the old guard, Nijmegen Company Grenadier Guards.

Familiar hits played by the Band of the Coldstream Guards in honour of Britain’s Olympians included Spandau Ballet’s Gold, The Olympic Theme, Chariots of Fire, and Whitney Houston’s One Moment In Time.

Garrison Sergeant Major Andrew Stokes, of the Coldstream Guards, who was in charge of the ceremony’s return, said: “It’s been a long time coming.”

“Bearing in mind it’s been 18 months since we last did a ceremonial Changing the Guard (at Buckingham Palace), there’s been an awful lot of hard work and preparation getting people up to standard”, he said as some of those taking part in the parade carried out the duty for the first time.

He added: “The guardsmen enjoy it because lots of members of the public and tourists come and watch – sometimes up to 20,000 in the middle of summer.

“The musicians enjoy it because they get to practise their skill in front of a willing audience, and it instils an awful lot of pride knowing that all these people have come to watch these very young guardsmen and musicians.”

The prestigious Household Division of the Army carries out state ceremonial and public duties such as Trooping the Colour, the State Opening of Parliament and Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.

The Guard ceremony also resumed at St James’s Palace, while it was back in Windsor in July.

During the pandemic, an Administrative Guard Mount was in operation instead, where soldiers took up their sentry duty positions but ceremonies were not carried out as they changed over.

The Household Division have been protecting the country’s kings and queens since 1660.

When they’re not performing ceremonial duties, guardsmen from the Household Division are also active, serving soldiers on operations or training.

For the past 18 months, they have been busy manning COVID-19 testing sites and vaccination centres across the country, as well as operational training.

Grenadier guardsmen also took part in a revised version of the Queen’s Birthday Parade at Windsor in June, and played a key role in the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh in the spring of this year.

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