Day 4 VIP Treatment

So this is the day that all of us criminal justice majors were looking forward to. Today we were escorted by some amazing members of the London Metro Police, Constable Richard Watson and Phil (sorry Phil). We started off by going to #10 Downing Street which is where the prime minister lives. There is a huge iron fence surrounding this neighborhood, the added the fence in the 80’s to prevent terrorism against the Irish.  We arrived while there was a session going on.

View from behind the gates

Constable Phil, Dr. Nobiling, VP of CSC Dr.Snare and Constable Richard Watson

Me outside of #10 Dowing street the house of the Prime Minister 

Next we were surprised to find put that not only were we going to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace but we were going to go inside the gates up to the steps of the palace to watch changing of the guard. This is a pretty exclusive honor. We were escorted up to the gates which are blocked off by police during this time. So we looked like a pretty big deal, there were people staring and taking our picture because they assumed we were pretty important…which we are obviously. The ceremony lasts a little over an hour but the new guards march over from their quarters and waited until the old guards marched over from St. James’s Palace. After that they do this face off thing where both marching bands play, they paid a Clint Eastwood theme song and Sir Duke (not sure of the other songs they played.) While we were watching the changing of the guard we were joined by some future Cold stream guards who were there to learn what to do at the changing of the guard. For those who don’t know what a cold stream guard is, they are the British guards with the bear skin hats, the cold stream have a red plume on the right side. Towards the end of the ceremony their major was marching back and he started marched up to us and he stopped and talked to us. 1^st I didn’t even know they were allowed to talk while in uniform and 2^nd Constable Watson said he has never seen a cold stream guard stop and talk to guests. So this was a pretty rare experience. I was very grateful that I was able to do this. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the gate but I will never forget
it.

Later that day we went to New Scotland Yard, which as a huge cj nerd I was pretty excited. We attended a lecture by some of the constables and they talked about the set up they did for the London Marathon and the
Olympics.