From bored to beside themselves, Brits await wedding

After that, there are as many opinions as there are royal subjects, from rabid antimonarchism to “I’ll probably watch it in the pub’’ to full-on wedding mania.

Yesterday, as much of London went back to work following a four-day weekend for the Easter holiday, the chaos of the wedding week had fully enveloped the city. Global media took over the areas along the route from Westminster Abbey, where the couple will wed, to Buckingham Palace, where they are expected to share the traditional kiss on the balcony (the television media have erected a three-story studio just across the way to get that shot).

On the streets, merchants flooded the touristy areas with wedding souvenirs, everything from tea towels and thimbles to queen bobbleheads and condoms featuring Prince William, while sellers of London’s royals-obsessed tabloids hawked “wedding exclusives’’ outside the tube stations. The Sun included free Wills and Kate masks; The Daily Mirror offered every reader a free commemorative wedding bell; and the Daily Express reprinted its entire issue from the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Diana.

But amid the wedding noise and the throngs of tourists — double the usual number for this time of year, according to one estimate — the locals were a mixed bag.

“I think most people are faux curmudgeonly about it,’’ said Kerri Smith, a 29-year-old British journalist who said several of her friends were hosting “ironic’’ wedding parties.

The only enthusiasm many will admit to is that the wedding holiday, coming just after Easter, gives them back-to-back four-day weekends.

But it was hard to find even a hater who said they were not going to watch the ceremony, if only to see that one thing the British do better than all others — pomp and circumstance.

“When Obama travels, he’s hidden in a bloody armored car,’’ said Harry Davidson, a retiree who was enjoying a day of shopping with his family. “But this lot will be parading down the mall in style.’’

But that pageantry costs money, and many Brits find the ostentatious display of wealth to be troubling.

“We give them an awful lot of money, and they drive around in these posh cars and have these big parties, yet they wonder why people are getting upset when they’re losing their houses and their jobs,’’ said a street performer named Phil who declined to give his last name because pro-royals “get really upset about that kind of talk.’’

Phil had just finished a show at Covent Garden, a shopping area that was crowded with booths selling wedding-themed merchandise. A British woman browsing the goods said she was not shopping for herself, but for friends abroad, illustrating a point many Londoners make: The wedding is actually a bigger deal for the rest of the world, especially Americans.

“You ask the British, and at this point they all say they just want it to be over,’’ said Kerrie Walters, who was selling fruit at a nearby cart.

But not all are so blasé about the affair. At Buckingham Palace, Vivien Barnard and Cecily Holmes, retirees from the southern part of the country, had come to the city for the day to eagerly soak in the wedding atmosphere.

“We all like Kate,’’ Barnard said. “She’s a commoner. We feel as though she’s one of us.’’

“And all those people who say they don’t like it,’’ Holmes said, giving a look around and dipping to a whisper, “deep down, they really do.’’

Barnard and Holmes, like many interviewed, said it was hard to find fault with a celebration when there is so much bad news in the world; plus, it involves one of “the boys,’’ the beloved children of the beloved Princess Diana.

“We all like going to weddings, and even the people who say they hate it will use it as an excuse to have a drink,’’ said Dave Pembroke, who was sitting outside the Prince of Wales pub in the city’s theater district, celebrating his 50th birthday by doing just that.

One area where the Brits are showing royal wedding enthusiasm is at betting parlors, where bookmakers say the locals — and not the tourists — have been betting heavily on everything from what color hat the queen will wear to whether Kate will show up late to the year when the couple will have their first child (the favorite is 2013; the odds on the child’s sex remain even).

There are, however, no odds on what will happen when that child arrives. “They’ll throw a huge party, won’t they?’’ an oddsmaker at a betting parlor in Trafalgar Square put it. “That’s a sure thing with that lot.’’

Billy Baker can be reached at billybaker@globe.com.