The dawn of a new era – waiting for the new prime minister

Sussex Bylines’ two Ginnys at Downing Street

After spending the night in the audience at Channel Four’s Riverside Studios for the election-night special, Britain Decides, the two Ginnys grabbed a hasty cup of coffee at a local Costa and set off for Downing Street on the morning of Friday 5 July, determined to join the crowds waiting to greet the arrival of the new prime minister.

The mood was certainly less ecstatic than it had been for the arrival of a young Tony Blair at number 10 in 1997, and at one point a rather exasperated young Labour supporter berated the crowd for not joining in with his tuneless singing of D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better. There was, though, a really profound sense of quiet hope that things in a rather broken Britain might now start to improve – and a determination to give the incoming administration the benefit of the doubt.

Our photos capture the mood of the morning – a very British mix of celebration, humour, and resignation in the face of a long wait, banter between police and spectators, and a lack of pomp and circumstance. Just a community of happy people waiting in the rain for the arrival of their new prime minister …