The Mall, London

The Mall is a broad ceremonial avenue running from Admiralty Arch to Buckingham Palace, laid out in its present form in the early twentieth century as a grand processional route. Surfaced in red to resemble a vast carpet and lined with plane trees and Union flags, it forms the setting for royal weddings, state visits and national celebrations. It follows the line of an earlier tree-lined walk used for the game of pall-mall in the seventeenth century. On many Sundays it closes to traffic for walkers and cyclists.