How Britain’s generations diverge on the monarchy

A mural depicting Queen Elizabeth II in a yoga pose, with the message “Welcome to Bristol,” greets visitors to this vibrant city in southwestern England.

But like so many other places in Britain, devotion to the monarchy in Bristol runs hot and cold. So as King Charles III is crowned on Saturday, views of the royal family fluctuate from apathy — even disdain — among young people in bohemian cafes and music shops to respect for the history and tradition of royalty among older Britons on the outskirts of town.

“It's excuse after excuse as to why we should have them at all, but the public is always afraid of change,” said Ewan Search, who works at Cafe Kino, a vegan outfit and community space in Bristol. “They are really nothing but mannequins for robes and jewels.”

Jaydie Pomphrey, 23, said she was just happy to have an excuse for a barbecue.

“I don’t really care about it personally,” she said. “What do they actually represent?”

She was among those enjoying the spring weather outside a cluster of shops on King Street over the weekend. Many said they weren’t even sure what day the coronation was being held.

The vibe was decidedly different across town in Shirehampton, a part of northwestern Bristol that feels more like a village, as residents gathered at a community hall the week before the coronation.

Laminated photos of Charles adorned market tables set up around the hall where locals mingled and shopped. The mayor cut an elaborately decorated coronation cake, and a local dance troupe performed, bangles and glittering gowns jingling.

“I guess we didn’t realise how important it was,” said Marilyn Gorry, 82. “It’s only when you are older that you realise how important it is.”

That generational divide goes a long way toward explaining the substantial split in public opinion in Bristol and across the nation about the role the monarchy plays in a modern Britain — one that looks decidedly different from when Elizabeth was crowned in the middle of the 20th century.

Many younger Britons question the need for a monarchy at all, while others, who tend to be older and more conservative, say the nation needs to hold on to a long-standing institution.

“I just don’t think it really resonates with a lot of people here anymore,” said Ffion Eyron, 22, who studies in Bristol and works in a vintage shop.

A recent poll conducted by YouGov and the BBC indicated that 32 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds believed that Britain should continue to have a monarchy, compared with 78 per cent of people older than 65 who supported a monarchy.

Most of the youngest cohort of people surveyed — 59 per cent — said Charles was out of touch with the experiences of the British public, and 34 per cent of those older than 65 felt that way. There was a similar divide when it came to interest in the royal family, with 78 per cent of the youngest group surveyed saying it had none.

The generational divide is particularly stark in Bristol, which has a median age of 34, younger than the national average of 40. It is also increasingly diverse, with 28.4 per cent of the population from an ethnic minority group, according to the last census.

Vintage shops, art galleries and independent cafes dominate the streetscape of the decidedly hipster Stokes Croft neighbourhood. Elsewhere, the youthful and bohemian identity of the city mingles with reminders of the rich, though sometimes problematic, industrial heritage that allowed the city to flourish.

Rosie Weston, who soaked up the afternoon sun with two friends last weekend, said she was just grateful for an additional public holiday, while her friends described the royal ritual as “outdated” and “a waste of money.”

The three said they had no plans to mark the king’s crowning and that they disagreed with the very notion of one rich family still wielding power and influence in the modern era.

“The history isn’t great,” Weston, 28, said.

Her group launched into an impassioned discussion of the legacy of the British Empire, its involvement in the slave trade — especially relevant in a city like Bristol — and the way the royal family had historically been involved.

The city docks, just steps away, played a major role in the trans-Atlantic trade of enslaved African people, and Caribbean products such as sugar, rum, indigo and cocoa produced by the enslaved were brought to Bristol and fuelled local industries, enriching British merchants from this port city.

In recent years, the city has begun to reckon with that troubled history, and in 2020, a statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader who became a wealthy benefactor of the city, was toppled and thrown into the harbour.

As the nation reckons with its colonial past, there has been growing scepticism of institutions like the royal family that profited, particularly among young people.

Ashleigh Fielding, 29, a small-business owner who makes plan table seed greeting cards, said that the cost of the lavish celebration was the most troubling aspect and that the money could be better spent elsewhere in a country struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.

“The prices for pretty much everything here is going through the roof,” Fielding said. “And then to hear how much the coronation is costing of taxpayers’ money — especially as someone trying to run a small business — it’s a struggle.”

Bristol will offer counter programming to the coronation, as it has for recent royal events. One independent cinema and community space, the Cube, is hosting an anti-coronation street party and discussion called “What Are We Celebrating,” as well as an evening of dancing at the “Big Gay Diana Party,” described as “an event for the more outgoing critics of the monarchy.”

Of course, many in Bristol are enthusiastic about the pomp and pageantry of the coronation. Some had begun marking the festivities a week in advance, including those at the Shirehampton community hall.

Gorry, who described herself as a royalist, remembers being a young girl during Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. She was born during World War II and said that in the years after the war, there was a real desire to have something to celebrate.

Neighbours and friends had all gathered around the small television in her home, then still a rarity in many households.

“The royal family, when I was a young girl, they were everything, and now it’s different,” she said, adding that Elizabeth was a more unifying figure than Charles.

“I don’t think we have so many people excited about the coronation now,” she added. “There is that feeling of being a bit more removed.”

-- The New York Times.