After two days of playing host to thousands of flag-waving royal supporters, visitors were invited back to Green Park on Monday – this time to do some gardening.
As the machinery moved in and the clean-up effort got under way around Buckingham Palace, a few metres away, along a meandering line marked out in white through the park, volunteers got down on their hands and knees to plant wildflowers.
The route, which marks that of the old River Tyburn, which used to flow from Hampstead in north London and under Buckingham Palace, is also where, just a few months ago, floral tributes were laid to the late queen.
Among the 180 people who took up the royal parks’ call to help with wildflower planting, as part of volunteering coronation initiative The Big Help Out, was Usha Venkataraman, 63, who despite having a bad back couldn’t resist.
“Love volunteering, love the queen, love gardens, so here we are,” said the accountant from Berkshire, who turned up to plant some bee-friendly flowers with her son Vignesh, 35, and his girlfriend, Lahari Ramuni, 31, who live locally.
And the new king? A slight pause. “We love him too. He does a lot of good work.”
Later, when she returned home, she planned to take part in another volunteering session to help homeless people in her area.
Her son, who works in healthcare research and development, used to volunteer, but fell out of the habit during the pandemic. “It’s nice to get back into it,” he said. “It’s a great idea, making volunteering accessible again.”
Ramuni, who works in financial technology and was at the coronation concert in Windsor (she went with her brother, a longtime National Citizen Service volunteer), said: “I think Charles’s focus on the environment is a good shift.”
First volunteers were instructed to bore a hole with a dibber (a pointy stick) two feet either side of the white line before inserting the 3,000 young plants, which will emerge as a river of blue and purple wildflowers next spring.
The Big Help Out, which hopes to encourage new people to come forward amid a volunteering crisis across Britain, has attracted criticism for its association with the coronation and the government, which has been condemned for its failure to address the root causes of poverty and inequality.
The wildflower volunteers did say the scheme had been effective in encouraging them.
Michelle Stimac, 38, who works in admin support, volunteered in Canada, where she used to live, but said finding opportunities in London could be difficult. She said an event like this helped. “I didn’t know the royal parks had this volunteer programme and it’s such a beautiful space so I’ll be looking for what other opportunities there are.”
Julie James, 52, who works for a scientific equipment maker, didn’t take part in any other coronation-related activities – except for watching the service on television – but turned up to volunteer with a group of neighbours and friends.
She goes to St James’s Park every day with her dog but this was her first time volunteering at her local park. “No matter what sort of day it is you never regret going to the park.”
The Royal Parks charity, which has close to 2,000 volunteers already, hopes to find new recruits in the process by raising awareness and removing barriers by helping with travel expenses and providing meals and uniforms.
Bryony Cross, volunteer and programme manager for the charity, hopes the king’s environmental interests will translate to interest in parks and green spaces. “We need all the interest we can get and hopefully it will put that agenda on an even wider range of people’s minds.”
Dinh Quan, 60, who works in IT, has been volunteering in Greenwich park as a ranger for a year, motivated by the climate crisis. “It helps me to understand the issue and helps me to fight the climate [crisis]. By doing that I can do exercise and also I don’t feel hopeless,” she said. “I can’t control what others do but I can control myself.”
