This week has seen one of the great traditional British sporting events taking place. Ascot is one of the world’s famous horse racing courses and during the week 15 – 19 June there is a series of races culminating in ‘Royal Ascot’ on Saturday 19th June. One of the Queen’s homes is in Windsor – which is only a few miles from Ascot, and so it has become traditional during this week for the Queen and other members of the Royal family to attend the races – sometimes even entering their own horses in the races. During  the week – usually on the Wednesday is ladies day, when you can see the racegoers dressed in traditional clothes – top hats, morning coats and the women with the most spectacular hats. The Ascot website describes it “Royal Ascot is the ‘must do’ event of the summer social calendar. Steeped in tradition, the Royal Meeting attracts over 300,000 racegoers each year to view the splendour of five days of the finest horseracing, pageantry and fashion. It is, quite simply, the essential day out.” There is a dress code – you may find this useful if you want to go! “Ladies with a Grandstand Admission ticket are required to dress in a manner appropriate to a smart occasion. Many wear hats although this is not compulsory. Gentlemen in the Grandstand Admission area must wear a shirt and tie, preferably with a suit or jacket. Sports attire, jeans and shorts are strictly forbidden.” You might think it’s all the upper classes and their froneds – but actually it’s a pretty normal day out for those who like horseracing and dressing up – it’s not even too expensive to get in. The only danger of course is if you have a bet too many and lose too much – but then that’s one of the fun parts of a day out at the races. Why not give it a go and experience somethign very British.

And just down the road form the racecourse is the UIC summer school where form mid July to mid August we host around 250 children and teenagers from all around the world. So – there are 2 reasons to visit Ascot this year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Life in London, Summer schools for children and teens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.