A bank holiday and more than 5,000 street parties marked the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011, but with less than a week to go until Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marry at Windsor Castle, the mood has shifted to embrace what has been called “a modern royal romance”. This wedding feels more relaxed, more inclusive, and on the streets of Brixton, south London, at least, is being met with enthusiasm.

“It’s brilliant. This wedding represents modern Britain,” says nursery manager Saba Abay, 30. Four months ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Brixton, which is home to Britain’s largest African-Caribbean community, in their second official engagement as a couple.

“There was a real buzz here that day, and I think it’s because of them,” says Abay, who says she has not paid much attention to the royals before now. “They are changing the face of the royal family. I’m from a very mixed family – I’m Ethiopian and my husband is English and Sierra Leonean – and I think they feel genuine.”

A royal wedding reggae jam is being put on up the road at the Prince of Peckham pub, and local institutions the Ritzy Cinema and Brixton Jamm are throwing their first royal parties.

“We wouldn’t have done the same for William and Kate,” says Kyle Parsley, 26, who is hosting club night Gold Teeth: a Drake and Rihanna royal wedding special at Jamm. His co-promoter, Joe Smart, 26, believes it’s because “Meghan has bought a lot more culture to it. It’s a change of pace. People can relate to her a bit more, she seems more accessible.”

In the week that UN representative Tendayi Achiume criticised a rise of “explicit racial, ethnic and religious intolerance” in Britain following the referendum on Brexit, Markle’s place at the heart of the British establishment appears especially meaningful.

Historian Ted Powell is certain that “it is difficult to overstate how important it is to have a member of the royal family … who is mixed race and embracing her heritage and stating that is very much part of her.”

He told the Observer: “It is hugely positive for Britain, particularly in the wake of Brexit, the controversies of immigration policy and the Windrush scandal.”

Sandra Wiltshire, who has been running her secondhand clothing business for 30 years in a railway arch under Brixton station, is reluctant to discuss how she feels at first.

“It’s about the boys [William and Harry] being grown up and settling down, not us being too excited or emotional,” she says. She and her daughter, Helen, 39, were there, “in the cold”, when they met the couple in a moment that was captured by press across the world. “They were real people,” says Sandra. “I’ll be honest, you meet people off the telly and they’re always a bit different, but they were genuinely warm.”

Helen agrees: “Everyone knows this is a different generation and it’s a big shift. This couple are expressing themselves and the royal family is coming closer to real people. We feel part of it.” They are looking forward to watching the wedding “on a big screen in a park somewhere”, but expect the Pop Brixton community project across the road will plan something more elaborate.

Independent retailers, startups and street food vendors occupy the bulk of Pop Brixton’s square of shipping containers. The space is also home to the community radio station Reprezent FM, which has been overwhelmed with attention since the royal visit last January. Station manager Adrian Newman is unfazed by the wedding, “not in a negative way, but we’re not saying or doing anything. I’m not really part of that world.”

Elsewhere, black Brixtonians are more enthusiastic. Michael Taylor Harry, 38, customer services adviser at Ferndale community sports centre, insists the couple “show how integrated the royal family is. It is embracing culture – I don’t want to say colour – but it’s how we see the world tomorrow. They feel now, they feel future.”

Nicole, a designer who has lived in Brixton for 13 years, believes it’s a hugely significant moment. “I’m not embarrassed to be excited by it, it resonates with me – she is American and biracial, as she puts it, and so am I. It’s a sign of change, definitely. The royal family is an institution that is so set it in its ways and isn’t seen as progressive, so this is change.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of the public wait before the royal couple’s visit to Brixton in January this year. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

However, Dr Kehinde Andrews, a sociologist teaching on Britain’s first black studies degree at Birmingham City University, is unconvinced. “The royal wedding is a complete non-event … the idea that this is good for race relations is frankly offensive,” he says.

“The royal family is one of the main symbols of whiteness, empire, bloodlines and colonial times, and one of the worst ways you could view racial progress is through interracial relationships – Brazil has the highest rate of mixed relationships in the world and suffers massive racism.”

To Andrews, the wedding distracts from more meaningful ways to help black Britons. “Meghan Markle is a beautiful woman but the royal family doesn’t change because you have a splash of coffee, she isn’t a dark- skinned woman with an Afro, she looks like Pippa [Middleton] and dresses like Diana.”

So what does the wedding symbolise from an academic perspective? Andrews laughs. “It doesn’t change anything. It just shows Harry has good taste in women.”

But Taylor Harry disagrees. “No one can be the voice of a whole community – I am a black man, this is me speaking as me – and it’s a beautiful thing, not just a good thing. The integration of the royal family is major.”

The big day

The royal family will begin to arrive at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle at 11.20am. More than 1,000 members of the public will watch the service from the castle grounds. BBC coverage starts from 9am until 2pm. On ITV it will run from 9.25am until 3pm.

The ceremony will begin at noon, and be conducted by the Dean of Windsor. Meghan will be walked down the aisle by her father, Thomas.

At 1pm the Queen will host a reception at St George’s Hall for the couple and 800 guests.

From 7pm 200 friends will attend a party hosted by the Prince of Wales at Frogmore House, Windsor.

• This article was amended on 17 May 2018 to clarify that Britain’s first black studies degree is taught at Birmingham City University.

