London in its crowning glory is set to deliver £50m boost for West End

LONDON was today ramping up preparations for the Coronation — with the Tube roundel redesigned as a “crowndel” and a number of buses and hire bikes given a royal wrap.

- Ross Lydall, Jonathan Prynn

Tube stations will also be decorated with souvenir posters while West End businesses predict a £50 million spending bonanza over the Coronation bank holiday weekend as tourists join the historic celebration of King Charles’s succession.

The New West End Company predicts footfall of 1.75 million over the three days, up a quarter on last year. International travel bookings to London for the Coronation week are up 93 per cent compared with last year’s first May bank holiday, while bookings from the United States are up 144 per cent.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said Transport for London’s makeover would help to “show our capital city in all of its glory” to the watching world. With Regent Street being decorated overnight with Union flags, TfL announced how the transport network would be dressed for the occasion. The Tube logo is being “crowned” with a l ikeness of St Edward’s Crown, which will be used at the Coronation. The “crowndels” can be found at stations around the procession route and at key interchanges, including on the Elizabeth line.