STORY: Charles will be crowned king in Britain's biggest ceremonial event for seven decades, a sumptuous display of pageantry dating back 1,000 years.

Charles succeeded his mother Queen Elizabeth when she died last September and at 74, he will become the oldest British monarch to have the 360-year-old St Edward's Crown placed on his head as he sits upon a 14th century throne at London's Westminster Abbey.

The heavy rain did not put royal fans off heading to watch the event in London.

''I sort of looked at the weather before I came and it looked like it was raining every day so we prepared.," said Faye Moore from Canada.