The Lord Mayor’s Show 2026: the times, where to stand, and the half nobody watches

The useful thing to know about the Lord Mayor’s Show is that it passes twice. Most people watch the procession go out at eleven, and go home. It comes back ninety minutes later along the Embankment, the same three miles of it, to a fraction of the crowd.

When it is, and what it costs

Saturday 14 November 2026. The procession sets off from Mansion House at 11am, and it is free to watch from anywhere on the route. There is nothing to book and no ticket for the street.

The route

Out from Mansion House to the Royal Courts of Justice by way of St Paul’s, Cheapside and Fleet Street. Back up the Victoria Embankment and Queen Victoria Street. The organiser publishes the detailed route map and the list of closed roads at lordmayorsshow.london from the beginning of October, so check it before you travel: almost the whole of the City is closed to traffic that day and every bus route through it is turned back or diverted.

Where to stand, and when to be there

For the outward procession, the stretch between Bank and St Paul’s carries it between 11am and midday. Being there on time is the whole trick: at Bank you want to be in place by about 10.30, and at Aldwych by about 11.15.

The return is the one worth knowing. The leading bands set off again from Temple Place at 1.10pm, and if you stand at the top of Blackfriars Bridge the procession reaches you at 1.18pm. The stretch between Temple and Blackfriars draws far smaller crowds than the morning; get there between 1.15pm and 2.30pm and you can usually walk up to the barrier.

What it actually is

A new Lord Mayor of the City of London is sworn in each November and travels to the Royal Courts of Justice to make the declaration. The procession is that journey, and it has been made in some form for centuries. The organiser calls it the oldest, longest and least rehearsed civic procession in the world, which is a fair description of the state of it: military bands, livery companies, floats, horses, and a gold coach at the end.

If you are bringing children

The outward procession at Bank is the loudest and the most crowded, and the least comfortable place to hold a small child for an hour. The Embankment on the way back is quieter, flatter and easier to leave.