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Want a ride but there’s no taxis?
We’ve all been there.
Also want to feel like you’ve just been crowned King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, your other Realms and Territories and Defender of the Faith?
Well, it’s your lucky week as visitors to a London park get the chance to hire a horse-drawn carriage ride in a publicity stunt by Uber.
The Uber carriage is modelled on the 260-year-old Gold State Coach that will carry King Charles III back to Buckingham Palace after Saturday’s coronation.
With security tight in central London, the replica does not exactly follow the king’s route from Westminster Abbey to the palace.
Instead, a gentle circuit of London’s Dulwich Park, reputedly a favourite haunt of Britain’s early-20th century Queen Mary, will have to do.
But when The National went aboard the Uber coach, curious locals were not letting that put them off.
A queue was building long before the carriage set off on its first afternoon ride.
At the front of the queue, London tour guide David Harry was filming the scene for the 177,000 followers on his TikTok account.
The real coach was described by the late Queen Elizabeth II as “horrible”, he said, “so I’m hoping we don’t get too bumpy a ride today”.
Another guest in his finest royal enthusiast outfit was practising a regal wave as he boarded the carriage.
The Uber version is an admirable replica.
There is an Imperial Crown on the roof, paintings of Roman deities on the doors and sculptures of the Greek god Triton looking out from the giant rear wheels.
The upholstery inside is the same deep red as the velvet and satin furnishing in the Gold State Coach — even if the 18th-century version does not have an Uber logo.
The south London park is the temporary home of four white horses in their best coronation gear, with a rider in a top hat leading the carriage procession.
The carriage is hardly solid gold but then neither is the real thing, which has a thin layer of gold leaf over its wooden frame.
And the real coach has seen some next-best-thing stagecraft too, with a hologram of the queen projected during last year’s platinum jubilee celebrations.
The Uber rides end on Friday before the real coronation takes place on Saturday.
The coach is the latest addition to an array of Uber transport options that already includes boats and helicopters.
The company wants to make its guests “feel like royalty” as curious onlookers pose with their dogs and take photos to show off to their children.
Dulwich Park hosts one of Britain’s fastest 5km runs but the carriage ride is a more unusual way to see it.
“We’re always looking for new ways to add a little Uber magic to people’s journeys, so we are over the moon to be able to bring the coronation carriage to Uber,” said Andrew Brem, the app’s general manager in the UK.
Even the royals rarely use the real coach, which is being seen for the first time since Queen Elizabeth died in September.
King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will arrive at the abbey in a more modern carriage, the black and gold Diamond Jubilee State Coach.
Made for the 60th year of the late queen’s reign in 2012, it has air conditioning and electric windows, an aluminium frame and six hydraulic stabilisers to stop it from swaying.
But for all its age and ponderous pace, the Gold State Coach has been used at every coronation since 1831 and has become part of the ritual of the day.
It will be pulled by eight Windsor Grey horses and flanked by armed forces from across the Commonwealth when it takes King Charles back to the palace.
Just hope he remembers to make the Uber booking.
