MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The military London night rehearsal preparing for the Coronation of Charles III

Soldiers and horses pictured marching at night in London ahead of King Charles III coronation

The first rehearsal for King Charles III Coronation took place as the military paraded through the quiet streets of central London in the early hours of the morning. The rehearsal was due to start at 10 pm on Monday but was delayed, before hundreds of military personnel followed the route on horseback preparing for the coronation on 6 May..

King Charles and the Queen Consort will make their way back from Westminster Abbey via Parliament Square, along Whitehall, around Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch and down The Mall back to Buckingham Palace.

The coronation procession stretches to just 1.3 miles – around a quarter of the length of the late Queen's five-mile celebratory journey which went through Piccadilly, Oxford Street and Regent Street.

The grand procession in 1953 took two hours and featured tens of thousands of participants, with the two-and-a-half-mile cavalcade taking 45 minutes to pass any given point.

While there was no sight of it at the rehearsal, King Charles and Camilla will be taken to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach and return via the same route in the Gold State Coach.

The coronation will see the largest military ceremonial operation in 70 years, with more than 6,000 men and women of the UK's armed forces taking part in the historic royal event.

Sailors, soldiers, and aviators from across the UK and the breadth of the Commonwealth will accompany Charles and Camilla to and from Westminster Abbey

Nearly 400 armed forces personnel from at least 35 Commonwealth countries, including the Falklands Defense Force, will also be on parade to mark the historic moment.