Jubilee - North West Region

Beacon Museum, Whitehaven

The Queen visited Beacon Museum, in Whitehaven, on 5 June 2008 as part of a tour to mark the 100th anniversary of Whitehaven town and harbour.

The Beacon Museum originally opened in 1996 as a purpose-built museum to rehouse the Whitehaven Museum collection. The collection consists of over 30,000 artefacts including archaeology, geology, social history, decorative art and fine art linked to the area.

During her 2008 visit, the queen formally reopened the Beacon Museum which had undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment.

Find out more about  The Beacon .

Bowness-on-Windermere Pier

The Queen visited Bowness-on-Windermere pier on 16 July 2013 as part of a wider visit to South Lakeland.

The pier at Bowness is one of many stopping points on Lake Windemere, the largest natural lake in England.  Windemere, until the late 18th century, was used primarily for the transportation of slate, timber and other goods.

The arrival of the railways in the mid-1800s, and the establishment of the first Steamer service on the lake, lead to a gradual increase in tourists into the area.

Find out more about  the pier .

Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness

The Queen visited Vickers Armstrong shipbuilding yard on 21 October 1960 to launch Britain’s first nuclear powered submarine, HMS Dreadnought. The launch took place on Trafalgar Day, the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd was founded in 1871 as the Iron Shipbuilding Company.  In 1897, Vickers & Sons bought the company and by the early 1900’s the yard was building large naval warships and armaments.

The company continued to grow and in 1927 merged with rival shipbuilder Armstrong Whitworth, leading to the creation of Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. The company has since gone through many mergers and name changes but the shipyard has continued to make craft for the Royal Navy, and later other navies around the world throughout the 20th and into the 21st century.

Find out more on the  National Heritage List .

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Eric Morcambe Statue

The Queen unveiled a statue of comedian Eric Morecambe on the promenade at Morecambe on 23 July 1999.

Comedian Eric Morcambe’s (1926–1984) real name was John Eric Bartholomew but he took his stage name from his hometown of Morcambe, where his statue now stands.  The statue depicts Eric Morecambe in one of his characteristic poses, first seen when he performed a routine to the song “Bring Me Sunshine”, with his comedy partner Ernie Wise.  He has a pair of binoculars around his neck as he was a keen bird watcher.

Find out more about the  Eric Morcambe Statue .

Lancaster Town Hall

The Queen visited Lancaster Town Hall on 13 April 1955.  In this photo she can be seen leaving the town hall with the town's mayor at the time, Councillor B. Scott.

Lancaster Town Hall was officially opened on 27 December 1909. It was financed by Lord Ashton, a local businessman and industrialist, who had made his fortune after inheriting his father's oil cloth and linoleum business, Williamson's.

Originally, the new town hall incorporated all the council's services and departments, as well as a police station, including cells, the magistrates court and a public hall, known as the Ashton Hall. Lancaster Town Hall is now a Grade II* listed building.

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Blackpool Opera House, Winter Gardens

The Queen visited Blackpool Opera House on 7 December 2009 to attend the Royal Variety Performance.  This wasn’t the only time she had travelled to Blackpool for the event - her visit in 1955 marked the first time the Royal Variety Performance was held outside London. The Royal Box was constructed especially for the occasion!

Blackpool Opera House is part of the Grade II* Winter Garden’s Complex. There has been a theatre on this site since 1889. The old one was demolished in 1938 to make way for the building which stands today.

At the time of its opening, June 1939, the current Opera House had the largest stage in the country. Today the theatre is one of the largest in Europe, seating nearly 3000 people!

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Preston Railway Station

In May 1974 the Queen and Prince Philip boarded a train from Preston Railway station for a tour of the newly electrified British Railways Anglo-Scottish route, between Preston and Glasgow.

 The Grade II listed Preston Railway station was built in 1880, by Cooper and Tullis of Preston, for the London and North Western and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Companies. It was built to replace the former complex of separate platforms and offices. These had been built, by different railway companies, from 1838 onwards, when the first station was opened on this site by the North Union Railway. 

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Fulwood Barracks, Preston

The Queen visited Fulwood Barracks on 26 June 2008 in order to present new colours (flags) to the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment who are now based there.

The Grade II listed Fulwood Barracks were built, between 1842-1848, on part of the site of an old racecourse. The barracks were created in response to anxiety over recent Chartist riots and were originally home to the 2nd Battalion 60th Rifles.

The barracks are the most complete surviving example in England of the late eighteenth century concept of barracks design. They are also one of the earliest examples of including a church within a barracks.

As well as being home to the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, they also house the Lancashire Infantry Museum.

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Blackburn Town Hall

The Queen visited Blackburn's Grade II listed Town Hall on the 14th April 1955.

Blackburn Town Hall was designed by James Patterson and built by Richard Hacking and William Stones. It was officially opened by the Mayor of Blackburn, William Hoole, on 3 October 1856 and the first royal visit was King George V in July 1913.

When it was built, the town hall was home to a police station with 18 cells, as well as a large assembly room, and a council chamber.

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Blackburn Cathedral

The Queen visited Blackburn Cathedral on 17 April 2014 to take part in the traditional Royal Maundy Thursday service. She is seen in the image meeting, and handing out Maundy money, to members of the congregation.

Blackburn Cathedral was formerly the parish church of St Mary the Virgin. The building was consecrated in 1826 and became a cathedral in 1926, when the Diocese of Blackburn was created.

It is believed that the site is linked with early Christianity; the foundation is thought to date from the year 596.

Blackburn Cathedral is a grade II* listed building.

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Sandygate Canal Bridge on the Leeds Liverpool Canal

The Queen travelled on the Leeds Liverpool Canal, through Burnley, in May 2012 as part of her Diamond Jubilee Tour of the Northwest.  She also visited Burnley FC for a performing arts show and took a tour around the Burnley College and UCLan campus.

The Sandygate Canal Bridge, seen in the second picture, is a listed structure on the Leeds Liverpool Canal in Burnley. It was built in the late 1700s by engineer Samuel Fletcher for the Leeds Liverpool Canal Company and is one of the few original canal bridges remaining in Burnley.

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Oldham Town Hall

The Queen travelled to Oldham on 22 October 1954. She inspected a guard of honour on Yorkshire Street and visited the town hall.   

Oldham Town Hall was designed by architect George Woodhouse. It was opened in 1841 and became the headquarters of the Municipal Borough of Oldham in 1849. It was extended in 1880 and Winston Churchill made his inaugural acceptance speech from the steps of the town hall when he was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1900. 

Today Oldham Town Hall is a Grade II listed building and has been converted into a cinema. 

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Manchester Aquatics Centre

The Queen attended the official opening of the Manchester Aquatic Centre on 12 October 2000.

Manchester Aquatic Centre was purpose built for the Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester in 2002. The building was designed by FaulknerBrowns Architects. From the outside, the roof resembles a wave. 

The centre is the home of the City of Manchester Aquatics Swim Team, as well as Disability Swimming and Water Polo athletes from the English Institute of Sport. All facilities are also open to the public.

Find out more about the  Aquatics Centre .

Manchester Town Hall

The Queen visited Manchester Town Hall, on 23 March 2012, as part of a tour of the city to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

Manchester Town Hall is a Grade I listed building constructed between 1868 and 1877. A competition was held to design the building which was won by architect Alfred Waterhouse. 

Perhaps the most iconic part of Manchester Town Hall is it’s 280 feet (85 m) tall bell tower. The clock mechanism was made by Gillet and Bland and was started on New Year's Day 1879.

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The Lowry

The Queen visited Salford on 1 October 2000 to attend the opening of The Lowry.

The Lowry is named after the artist, L.S. Lowry (1887 – 1976). Lowry spent a significant portion of his life in Salford and much of his work depicts mill scenes and industrial landscapes from the city.

The Lowry houses two theatres, three art galleries and conference facilities. It was designed by Michael Wilford and Partners and the late Sir James Stirling.

Find out more about  The Lowry .

Bolton Market Hall

The Queen visited Bolton on 1 December 1988. She opened the newly refurbished and renamed Market Place Shopping Centre which was originally Bolton Market Hall.

Bolton Market Hall was first opened in December 1855. It was said at the time to be the largest covered market in the country.

The site has been modified several times over the course of its life but the hall itself, and the shops on the ground floor, are Grade II listed.

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Trencherfield Mill

The Queen visited Trencherfield Mill in Wigan on 26 March 1986 as part of a royal visit to the area.

Trencherfield Mill was built as a cotton spinning mill, originally in 1822–23 by William Woods. The present building dates from 190 and is a Grade II listed building.

The steam engine at Trencherfields was one of the largest and, thought to be one of the finest, examples of its type. It could generate up to 2,500 horsepower which was used to power the machinery in the mill.  The two sides of the engine were named after William Woods’ daughters; Helen and Rina.

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Wigan Pier

The Queen visited Wigan Pier on 21 March 1986 to open the newly regenerated Wigan Pier Complex. 

The original "pier" at Wigan was a coal loading staithe, probably a wooden jetty, where wagons from a nearby colliery were unloaded into barges for transportation down the Leeds Liverpool Canal. It is thought that this pier was demolished in 1929.  

In the 1980s, the canal warehouses around Wigan Pier were restored and put into use as a museum, exhibition hall and pub. Known as 'The Wigan Pier Quarter' the area is now designated as a  Conservation Area .

Heinz Factory

The Queen visited the Heinz Factory in Wigan on 21 May 2009 to mark the factory’s 50th anniversary.  This was her second visit to the site.  Her first had been in June 1959, a few weeks after Heinz opened in Wigan.

The Heinz factory is one of the largest food factories in Europe and the largest Heinz factory in the world, producing 1.5-3 million tins of beans each day, as well as lots of other Heinz products.

Find out more about the  history of Heinz. 

Aintree Racecourse

The Queen and the Queen Mother visited Aintree on 26 March 1955 to watch the Grand National. The royal party viewed the race from the box of Lord Derby and Lady Derby, in the background of this photo. 

There has been a racecourse at Aintree since 1829, when the Second Earl of Sefton agreed to lease land to William Lynn, a local hotel owner, for the purposes of flat racing. Sefton was nicknamed “Lord Dashalong” due to his love of horse racing!

The racecourse is best known as the home of The Grand National which officially began in 1839 and is run annually in April. The County Stand at Aintree is a Grade II listed building.

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St Andrew’s Garden Estate (“Bullring”)

The Queen visited Liverpool in July 1999 to carry out a number of engagements.  One of these was a visit to the newly renovated tenements on the St. Andrew’s Gardens Estate, otherwise known as the Bullring. 

The Bullring was built in 1935 as part of Liverpool council’s drive to replace slum housing in the city centre.  Out of five multi storey dwellings built in the Liverpool at the time, the Bullring is the only one that remains.  Today it is student housing and a Grade II listed building.

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Liverpool Anglican Cathedral

The Queen visited Liverpool Anglican Cathedral on 26 October 1978, to take part in a Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication to mark the completion of the building after 74 years.

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral is Britain’s biggest Cathedral and took 74 years to build from the foundation stone being laid in 1904.   A competition was held to design the cathedral and the winner, Giles Gilbert Scott, was only 22 and had never produced a building before!

The Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool was described by the poet Sir John Betjeman as “one of the great buildings of the world”. It is a Grade I listed building.

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Birkenhead Town Hall

The Queen visited Birkenhead Town Hall on 11 July 1957.

The town hall in Birkenhead was completed in 1887. It was designed by local architect Charles Ellison as part of William Laird’s prestigious Hamilton Square development.

The Town Hall was located and designed to make it visible from Liverpool’s waterfront on the opposite side of the Mersey, emphasising Birkenhead’s civic pride to her neighbour. Birkenhead Town Hall is a Grade II* listed building.

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St Helens Town Hall

The Queen visited St Helens Town Hall on 20 October 1954.  In the photograph she is accompanied by the Mayor, Councillor T Hignett, Prince Philp and the Mayoress, Miss Margaret Hignett, follow.

 St Helens Town Hall was built in 1876.  There had previously been a town hall on the same site, completed in 1839, but it was destroyed by fire in 1871. 

Although St Helens Town Hall is not a listed building, there are two telephone kiosks flanking the entrance which are listed.

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Warrington Town Hall

The Queen visited Warrington on 2 November 1979.  She was greeted by excited crowds on her arrival and later that day, visited Warrington Town Hall where she waved to the crowds from the balcony.

Warrington Town Hall was built in 1750. It was originally known as Bank Hall and was the home of Thomas Patten, an important merchant in the town. When it was built Bank Hall stood in open fields on the edge of the town, surrounded by landscaped gardens and with views of the River Mersey and the Cheshire countryside.

In 1870 the hall, and 13 acres of surrounding land, was sold to Warrington Borough Council. Almost all of the land was opened as Warrington's first public park in 1873.

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The Royal Hotel, Runcorn

The Queen visited Runcorn on 31 July 1998.  The building that she is standing outside in this image is the Royal Hotel in Runcorn, which is a Grade II listed building. 

Dating from the late 18th Century, the Royal Hotel is Runcorn’s oldest public house.  The building opposite the Royal was originally the town hall, then the police station with a court and cells.   This building was restored and reopened by the queen during her visit in 1998.

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Rocksavage Power Station

The Queen officially opened the Rocksavage Power Station at ICI's Runcorn plant on 31st July 1998.   In the photograph she is escorted by Mr Carlos Riva, President and Chief Executive Officer of InterGen Energy at the time. 

Rocksavage Power Station takes its name from a nearby Elizabethan Mansion, home of the Savage family who were important Cheshire landowners.  The power station is a natural gas fired power plant which has the generating capacity of 810MW - enough to meet the needs of more than 800,000 households.

Find out more about  Rocksavage Power Station 

Blue Planet Aquarium

The Queen visited Blue Planet Aquarium on 31 July 1998 to mark its opening. 

When it was built, the Blue Planet Aquarium in Chester was the largest aquarium in the UK. It was designed, by Manchester-based architects, Buttress Fuller Alsop, to resemble the shape of a crashing wave. Today Blue Planet in Chester holds the biggest collection of sharks in Europe!

Find out more about the  aquarium .

Chester Zoo

The Queen enjoyed a visit to Chester Zoo on 17 May 2012.  She took a trip on the Monorail, visited the new Rhino Paddock and unveiled a plaque at the zoo's entrance.

Chester Zoo was opened by George Mottershead in 1931. As a boy he was inspired by a visit to Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Manchester and had, from that point onwards, dreamed of opening a site of his own.

Mottershead’s vision was that his attraction would be a zoo “with no bars.” He used moats and ditches as an alternative to Victorian style cages. Today the zoo is one of the most visited wildlife attractions in Britain, holding more than 70 species of animal. 

Oakfield House, the original headquarters of Chester Zoo, now a restaurant, is a Grade II listed building.

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Chester Cathedral

The Queen attended the Royal Maundy Service at Chester Cathedral on 3 June 1992. As part of the service, she distributed Maundy Money to pensioners who had been nominated by the local dioceses for contributions to their local church and community.

The site of Chester cathedral has been used as a place of worship since Saxon times. The oldest parts of the building that now stands, date to 1093, when it was first built by Benedictine Monks. Much of the Cathedral was then rebuilt in 1250 in a more dramatic, gothic style.  Chester Cathedral is a Grade I Listed Building.

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Chester Racecourse

The Queen visited Chester Racecourse on 10 June 2010 to attend the Drumhead Service of Thanksgiving to mark the return of soldiers of 1st Battalion Royal Welsh from operations in Afghanistan. 

Chester Racecourse is the oldest racecourse still in operation in the world. The first race was held there in 1539, with the consent of the Mayor of Chester, Henry Gee. It is thought that the term "gee-gees" originates from his name!

The site of Chester Racecourse was once underwater and, during the Roman Period it was a harbour used for trading vessels from all over the world.

Find out more about the history of the  racecourse .