To help ensure smooth conditions, particularly for the many rowed craft, the organisers had arranged for the annual high tide test closure of the Thames Barrier to take place on the same day as the parade.

The Spirit of Chartwell, a 210-foot (64 m) motor vessel with a top speed of 11 knots (13 mph; 20 km/h), was donated as the royal barge for the pageant and enhanced over the course of a year with symbols and ciphers that referred to the coronation, the Commonwealth and the Gold State Coach, and had a crown displayed on the bow.

The Queen was attended by Lady Susan Hussey, her lady-in-waiting for more than 50 years; her deputy private secretary, Edward Young; her equerry, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rex; and waterman.

Other guests on the barge included Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London; Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth Secretary-General; Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, historian Simon Schama and Sir Donald Gosling with his partner Gabriella Di Nora.

The Duchess of Cornwall wore a cream ensemble with sleeves decorated with gold paillettes, by Anna Valentine, and a hat by Philip Treacy.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore a scarlet long-sleeved dress with pleated skirt by Alexander McQueen with matching hat by Sylvia Fletcher, of royal milliner James Lock & Co., and carried a red satin clutch bag.

[1][18] The section of man-powered boats set the pace for the pageant, and was led by the 27-metre-long (89 ft) Gloriana, a rowing barge privately commissioned as a tribute to the Queen for the 2012 Jubilee.

[16] A separate fleet of 50 safety boats,[22] provided by the charity Northern Exposure Rescue, escorted the man-powered vessels from Putney Embankment to South Dock.

Preceding the Royal Convoy, were fifty five dinghies, which sailed in diamond formation, each bearing the flag of a Commonwealth Country and carrying Sea Cadets from the UK, Bermuda and Hong Kong.

[16] Among the working vessels were Amaryllis, umpire's launch for the Henley Royal Regatta; White Heather, the only surviving narrow-beam London canal tug; the Stork HM Customs and Excise boat, James Stevens No.14, the world's oldest motor lifeboat; and the Massey Shaw fireboat of the London Fire Brigade, veteran of Operation Dynamo, Dunkirk.

They included Sir Malcolm Campbell's Blue Bird of Chelsea, the Breda from the TV series The Prisoner, and MTB102 which also carried Churchill and Eisenhower on 3 June 1944 to view the D-Day fleet.

438, built the year of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria; RASCV Humber, the last wooden vessel in service with the Army, and Atta Boy,[25] a launch from HMS Royalist at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

[16] When the Spirit of Chartwell neared Tower Bridge, the Queen was saluted by the guns, the naval cadets and veterans aboard HMS Belfast.

However, despite the increasingly inclement weather, the 86-year-old Queen chose to remain on the Spirit of Chartwell, standing continuously for nearly four hours, waving and acknowledging the salutes of the spectators, until the end of the procession.

[29] The orchestra and their instruments were safely under cover, but the choir stood in the pouring rain, singing encores of Land of Hope and Glory as they made their way from London Bridge.

[30] Despite the cold and rainy weather, the riverside was crowded with spectators along the entire route, many having camped overnight to secure a place, and many others watched the event from nearby on large screens and in pubs.

The poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote an eight-verse poem, Common Wealth, to mark the event and this was set to music by the composer Orlando Gough.

[31] In all, the pageant featured new works by thirteen modern British composers including Anne Dudley, Graham Fitkin, Gavin Greenaway, Christopher Gunning, Howard Goodall, Adrian Johnston, John Lunn, Julian Nott, Jocelyn Pook, Rachel Portman, Stephen Warbeck and Debbie Wiseman.

[34][35] The live television coverage of the pageant by the BBC was the subject of some media criticism and the broadcast reportedly attracted over 4500 complaints from members of the public.

Some commentators took the view that BBC presenters on the day had concentrated too much on interviews with celebrities and that they were insufficiently prepared to add depth to the TV commentary.