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Football-style terrace seats for Coronation amid fears of thin crowds

Football-style terraces will be deployed at King Charles’s Coronation next month to make crowds appear more packed in photographs amid fears of low attendance.

Coronation organisers plan to put the public in tiered seating by the side of the road during the King’s procession, rather than allowing onlookers to stand on the pavement.

The initiative is expected to improve the view for well-wishers standing further back in the crowd, but is also designed to make it look better in photographs.

A source close to proceedings said pictures will show a “wall of heads” behind the monarch as he proceeds through central London, in a similar way to spectators behind speakers at political rallies.

The plans come amid fears that King Charles’s Coronation will look less popular when compared with photographs of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, when an estimated three million people packed the streets of London to watch her pass.

“They are massively terrified about comparisons with 1953 and his mother’s coronation,” said a source.

“There will be tiered seating so the crowd looks bigger. They’re worried about it looking a bit s—.”

New polling by More in Common shows that more people say they do not intend to celebrate or watch the Coronation than will.

In a survey conducted earlier this month and shared with The Telegraph, 36 per cent say they will watch or celebrate the event; while 46 per cent say they will not.

A similar number – 39 per cent – say the event will be worth the estimated £100 million cost, while 46 per cent say it will not.

Luke Tryl, More in Common’s UK director, said: “What with the psychodrama of Harry and Megan, the disgrace of Prince Andrew, and the cost of living dominating the public’s mind, the Palace is going to have to work hard to convince people to tune into a Coronation that many don’t think is worth the cost.

“If the prospect of an extra Bank Holiday isn’t enough to get people excited, the Palace really has its work cut out.”

The poll also found support for Buckingham Palace’s decision to include the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the list of around 70 personal guests of the King at the ceremony.

Almost half said the couple were rightly invited, while 34 per cent think they should not have been.

The opposite was true of Prince Andrew, who 46 per cent said should not have been invited.

Just over a third (36 per cent) of the 2018 respondents said he should.

Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was watched by more than 20 million people on television – outnumbering the audience for radio for the first time.

The event is widely credited with making television a more mainstream medium, with eight million people watching the event on their own devices.