Thousands of royal wedding spectators unfairly thwarted from getting view of balcony kiss

The BBC1 Six O'Clock News today commented that in a novel take on "kettling" (sic), shortly before the royal couple and family appeared on the balcony (at 1.25pm), royal wedding procession spectators around Trafalgar Square were allowed to proceed down The Mall while spectators on The Mall itself remained confined behind police barriers and couldn't move forward.

I was among the spectators on The Mall, on the north side, east of Clarence House, and was among the crowd waiting close to the police barrier by the Clarence House gates (i.e. as close as I could get to the Palace after the procession had ended). Then, after the cleansing vans had been round to sweep up horse manure, other spectators were seen streaming down the centre of The Mall while at the same time, we remained confined for several minutes before limited exit points were made in the police barrier.

I was able to get to the Victoria Memorial and just far enough round it to observe the whole balcony appearance. But I only did so by the skin of my teeth, by being tall enough firstly to see over heads to spot when to move in different directions from the crowd around me at key moments, and secondly to see over the heads of other people despite ending up on a step lower than the crowd just in front of me by the Victoria Memorial. En route, I saw a crowds of spectators who remained penned in on the sides of the Mall sections closest to the Palace who would not have got a view of the balcony appearance.

This meant that thousands who had arrived early and/or planned ahead specially so that they could get a view of the balcony appearance and royal kiss, were denied the opportunity in favour of spectators who'd been positioned much further away along the route. It would have meant that those who had been waiting closest to the palace would have missed out on views of Will and Harry's lap to the Abbey (from Clarence House) completely in vain.

The police will probably spout out something about the need to prevent crushes. However, in all the thick of crowd movement, which became quite frantic as the last viewing ground for the balcony disappeared, I never experienced or saw any kind of crush.