Desperately excited, wildly outraged, or quietly indifferent, everyone had their opinion on the recent royal wedding. The lavish celebration was watched by two billion people, as tens of thousands flocked to the one-and-a-half mile procession route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, to try and catch a glimpse of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
With the world watching the streets of London, it is important to think about the people who made them look flawless. The cleaning of the streets of London, both before and after the event, was organized and executed with military precision. This is how it was done …
The initial cleanup began weeks before London was flooded with visitors from around the world. The subways leading to and from Westminster tube station were vigorously washed with detergent and wire brushes. This was done by criminals, convicted of misdemeanors, who chose to volunteer for duty rather than receive a prison sentence. This project was organized by Westminster City Council through the Community Payback program.
The rest of the preparations and post-wedding clean-up were arranged by the Westminster City Council’s waste management contractor. They approached the cleanup of the event with the efficiency you can expect from a contractor; using your resources and staff to get the job done, while causing minimal disruption to the public.
The night before the Royal Wedding, a thorough cleaning of the route was carried out. This involved the use of a 15-person team of cleaners to remove every piece of trash from the procession route. They were assisted by a small Johnston C40 sweeper to do an initial cleaning, which was then followed by a large Johnston 600 sweeper. After this they gave the route a final high pressure jet polish to make sure it was flawless. A Westminster City Council statue cleaning team worked to rejuvenate the Royal Tank Regiment, Women in War and the Gurkha Soldier statues, which were to pass through the procession.
On the day of the Royal Wedding, the cleaning staff hired to clean the event began their work at 2.am; they prepared the route of the procession by giving it one last sweep. They then placed sand where the horses were likely to slip and ensured that two sanding machines were placed at strategic intervals along the route. During the royal procession, the contractor’s street cleaners waited until the procession passed and then immediately entered the area to remove the trash and sand left over from the procession, returning it to its pristine condition.
Around the busy transportation stations, they placed an additional 40 sweepers to keep these densely crowded areas clean and orderly. Other cleaners walked through the crowd throughout the day, picking up trash left by the public. After the celebrations were over, it didn’t take long for the cleaning crew to return the streets of London to normal.
Regardless of opinions on the cost of the Royal Wedding to the public, a cleaning contractor did an excellent job preparing for the event and making the city seem like it never happened afterwards. His exact planning, additional personnel available, countless machines and unlimited equipment made the cleaning an absolute success.
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