Jubilee - London & South East Region

St Mary the Virgin, Eastbourne

The Queen (Princess Elizabeth at the time) between her parents, then the Duke and Duchess of York, with her sister Princess Margaret, attend a service at St. Mary's Church in Eastbourne in 1936. 

St Mary’s is the parish church for Eastbourne. The earliest parts of this large Grade I listed church date back to the 12th Century, but it is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There are many medieval features remaining such as the font and screens but also more recent additions of note e.g., stained-glass windows by renowned Scottish designer, Douglas Strachan.

The royal visit took place two months after the death of King George V, who had visited St Mary’s while on holiday in Eastbourne in 1935. 

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Chichester Festival Theatre 

The Queen unveiling a plaque on her visit to the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex in 2017. 

The theatre was the brainchild of local optician Leslie Evershed-Martin who wanted a ‘tent in the park’ for performances by and for the local community. Built from reinforced concrete in 1962, it was funded by subscriptions. It had the first open stage in Britain, a design inspired by Greek and Roman amphitheatres and by Elizabethan stage techniques.

Laurence Olivier was the first artistic director, and today many productions from Chichester transfer to London’s West End and tour all over the world.

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Hastings Fishermen’s Museum

The Queen accepting a bouquet of flowers from children outside the Fishermen's Museum on her visit to Hastings Old Town in June 1997.

The Museum was originally built as the Fishermen’s Church of St Nicholas in 1854. It served the fishing community until the Second World War and became a museum in 1956.

Managed by the Old Hastings Preservation Society, a tour includes the deck of Hastings’ last sailing lugger and one of the town’s iconic (Grade II* listed) net shops where fishermen hung their nets to dry.

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St Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls, Tulse Hill

The Queen met pupils during a visit to the St-Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls in Tulse Hill, Lambeth in 1999. Her visit marked the 300th anniversary of the school.

St-Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls is one of the oldest schools for girls in the country, founded as a charity by that parish in 1699. St Martin's Middle school for Girls was opened, near parish church, in Charing Cross Road in 1875, but outgrew the site.

In 1913 a Victorian mansion was purchased in Tulse Hill and the school moved to its new premises there in 1928. It was opened by the Queen’s mother, then Duchess of York.

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Royal Observatory, Greenwich

The Queen visited the restored Flamsteed House, the oldest building of the old Royal Observatory at Greenwich, in 1960.

This distinctive red brick and white stone building is thought to be the work of Sir Christopher Wren. A Latin inscription states that the Observatory was founded by Charles II in 1676. Astronomers Royal, John Flamsteed and Edmond Halley, plotted all the stars in the northern and southern hemispheres.

A time ball in use since 1833, drops at 1pm everyday as an aid to navigators. The Royal Observatory has been the historic source of the Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude 0° 0' 0'' since the late 19 ^th  Century.

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The Cutty Sark

The Queen 'opened' the Cutty Sark at her permanent berth at Greenwich in 1957.

Cutty Sark, a tea clipper launched in 1869, was once the fastest ship on the China run. Later, it brought wool from Australia in record breaking time. It was laid up as a tribute to the Merchant Navy and permanent memorial to the days of sail in a dry dock thanks in part to the support of Prince Philip.

Restoration work was hampered by a major fire in 200 but 90% of the ship was preserved and the Queen reopened Cutty Sark in 2012.

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The Palm House, Kew Gardens

The Queen cut a cake depicting the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to celebrate its 250th Anniversary.

The Palm House was constructed in 1844 by engineer Richard Turner to a design by architect Decimus Burton. Built of glass and iron, it is 62 feet high and 362 feet long. Specialising in palms and other tropical and subtropical plants, it is home to many endangered species and plants useful for both medical research and economic value.

Approximately 2 million people visit the Palm House at The Royal Botanic Gardens every year.

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Windsor Castle

The Queen on Day 53 of the Olympic Torch Relay for the London 2012 Olympics. The flame passes from Gina MacGregor to Phillip Wells.

Windsor Castle is the oldest occupied castle in the world. It was founded by William the Conqueror in the 11 ^th  Century and has been home to 39 monarchs. The earliest stone buildings date back to the reign of Henry II but there have been many alterations and additions, including St George’s Chapel in the late 15 ^th  Century.

Many Royal weddings have taken place here including the marriage of Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in 2018.

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Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Queen with children from West Kidlington Primary School in the education room as she officially reopens the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 2009.

The Ashmolean Museum is the oldest public museum in the UK. It was founded by collector Elias Ashmole in 1683 and the original building is now the Museum of the History of Science. The current museum, designed by Charles Robert Cockerell in a neo-Greek style, was built in 1841-45.

Items in the collection include the Alfred Jewel, the death mask of Oliver Cromwell and the lantern carried by Guy Fawkes.

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Westminster Abbey

The Queen looks at a statue of Queen Elizabeth I, by sculptor Matthew Spender, during a visit to Westminster Abbey in 2010 to mark the 450th anniversary of the granting of the institution's Royal Charter.

Westminster Abbey has been the site of coronations since 1066. The Gothic church built on the site of Edward the Confessor’s Abbey by Henry III took years to complete.

It is the burial place of kings, statesmen, poets, scientists, warriors and musicians and has the most important collection of monuments in the country. One of the most notable burials is that of the Unknown Warrior of the First World War.

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Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre

The Queen attends the Youth Games, which started in 1977 to celebrate the her Silver Jubilee, during her Golden Jubilee visit to South London in July 2002.

The National Recreation Centre was built in 1960-64 by London County Council Architects’ department. A simple A-frame design with a central walkway enabled interaction between different sports. It boasted one of the earliest indoor multifunctional halls, with the only Olympic-sized pool in southern England.

It now forms part of the National Sports Centre and the athletics stadium hosts live music as well as sporting events.

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The British Museum

The Queen Elizabeth looks at the mask of King Tutankhamun, during the opening of the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum in 1972. The British Museum is the world’s oldest national public museum free to all “studious and curious persons”.

Built between 1823 and 184 by Sir Robert Smirke in a Greek Revival style, it houses 8 million works relating to human history, art and culture. The Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition was the most popular in the museum’s history, with 1.7 million people queueing for hours to see the iconic burial mask of the boy king.

In 2000, the museum was redesigned to include the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, the largest covered public square in Europe.

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YHA South Downs

The Queen officially opened YHA South Downs, near Lewes as part of her tour of East Sussex in 2013. The Queen is a patron of the Youth Hostel Association, which converted the Grade II* listed 13th Century Itford Farmhouse and outbuildings into a 64-bed hostel.

The farmhouse, which has many 18th Century alterations, forms the main accommodation block and social spaces of the hostel. A few hundred metres from Southease station and directly on the South Downs Way, the hostel attracts visitors keen to explore the surrounding countryside.

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The Science Museum

The Queen watching an automatic ticket gate being demonstrated at "The Engineer's Day" exhibition at the Science Museum, London in 1966.

The South Kensington Museum was founded after the Great Exhibition in 1851, the brainchild of Prince Albert and the inventor Henry Cole. It opened on its present site in 1857 and was renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899.

The Science Museum was created in 1909 when it was decided to split the scientific and technological sections from art and design. Today, the museum’s galleries provide a remarkable record of scientific, technological and medical advancement.

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Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), Cowes Castle

The Queen leaves Cowes with Prince Philip and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was installed as Governor of the Isle of Wight during the visit in 1965. The original fort here was built in 1539 by Henry VIII to defend the River Medina and Newport.

Founded in 1815, the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) started Cowes Week regatta in 1826. The America’s Cup also originated here after a New York City yacht ‘America’ won the round the island RYS £100 Cup race in 1851. New York City Yacht Club defended the cup for 132 years, the longest winning streak in sporting history.

Cowes Castle became the RYS club house in 1856. Ladies’ facilities were added in the 1960s.

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Fort Blockhouse and HMS Dolphin, Gosport

The Queen visited HMS Dolphin, Gosport in 1959. Fort Blockhouse became the site of the Royal Navy’s first submarines. A hulk, HMS Dolphin, was brought in to provide accommodation and gave its name to the independent command established in 1912.

It was the Royal Navy’s principal submarine depot during the First World War and developed rapidly as a base for training and maintenance. While it played an important role in the D-Day landings and was responsible for the country’s nuclear deterrent in the 1960s, its significance declined with the end of the Cold War.

HMS Dolphin closed in 1998 and the site is now home to Royal Navy Submarine Museum.

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Heathrow Airport

The Queen about to embark from Heathrow Airport with her Corgis for her annual holiday in Balmoral in 1981. Heathrow Airport originally opened in 1946 as London Airport.

The headquarters and engineering workshops for the British Overseas Airways Corporation, now British Airways, were built between 1950-55. Engineer, Sir Evan Owen Williams, who also designed the original Wembley Stadium, envisaged a flexible building that would adapt to the needs of the aviation industry. Part of a disused building has recently been repurposed with flight simulators for the British Airways Global Learning Academy.

The Queen has owned Pembroke Welsh Corgis since she was a child and has had more than 30 since she became Queen in 1952.

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Waltham Forest Council

The Queen visited Walthamstow as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour in 2012. Waltham Forest Town Hall (formerly Walthamstow Town Hall) was designed by architect Philip Dalton Hepworth in 1932 but completion was delayed due to the Second World War.

When it finally opened in 1942 the assembly hall was used as a British Restaurant. Hepworth was one of the principal architects of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In 1965, the building continued to be used by the newly formed London Borough of Waltham Forest.

In 2019, Waltham Forest was the first London Borough of Culture, delivering more than 1000 events celebrating the history, diversity and culture of the area.

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Bletchley Park

The Queen meets Jean Valentine, a wartime operator of the Turing Bombe machine during a visit to Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes on 15 July 2011.

Bletchley Park became the principal centre of Allied codebreaking during the Second World War. To help with decryption, automatic machinery such as Colossus, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer was devised. In the grounds is the hut in which the vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. The "Ultra" intelligence from Bletchley shortened the war and helped secure victory for the Allies.

Several of the outbuildings and huts remain, including the Hut 11 complex where Bombe devices used for encryption were housed. It took local enthusiasts more than 20 years to secure the future of Bletchley Park as a heritage site, but it now welcomes 250,000 visitors each year.    

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Former Ordnance Survey Offices, Southampton

The Queen at the opening the new headquarters of the Ordnance Survey in Southampton on 1 May 1969.

The Ordnance Survey (OS), Great Britain’s mapping agency, was formed in 1791. It originated from a military need for accurate surveys at a time of possible invasion. In the 1850s they moved to Southampton, in new purpose-built premises off London Road. These were badly damaged during the Blitz in 1940, so staff were relocated to the Maybush area of the town.

The OS moved to new purpose-built offices in Maybush in 1969 and to a business park in 2011. Today, in addition to field surveyors, the OS uses global navigation satellite systems, remote sensing and a range of advanced geographical information systems (GIS) to collect and maintain data.

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Hampshire County Council, Winchester Castle

The Queen chats with Usman Angulu Ahmed, a member of the Northern Nigerian House of Representatives, during her visit to Winchester to open the Hampshire County Council’s new offices on 8 June 1959.

The offices adjoin the remains of the Great Hall of Winchester Castle. The castle was a motte and bailey castle built by William the Conqueror from 1067, following the Conquest the previous year. By about 1110 it was the principal royal seat in the city and housed the Domesday Book.

During the Civil War Parliamentarians laid siege to the castle, which held out for a week before heavy cannon fire breached the walls. In 1649 the Council of State resolved that the defences should be permanently dismantled and the castle walls and towers were taken down.

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Reading Station

The Queen was shown a scale model of a train during a visit to open the new station on 17 July 2014, after a £900 million redevelopment.

The new station respects an earlier Grade II listed station. It was built in 1865-67 by the architect Mr Lane, who was the Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway Company. This itself was an enlargement and remodelling of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's original station which opened on 30 March 1840.

The 1865-67 station has been a pub since the last major redevelopment in 1989 which also saw the Queen visit to open a new station on 4 April 1989. By 2007 it became clear that this still wasn’t big enough, with passenger trains often having to wait outside the station for a platform to become available, hence the latest phase of redevelopment.

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Banbury Town Hall

The Queen visited Banbury town hall on 27 November 2008 to unveil a plaque commemorating the 400th anniversary of the 1608 charter, which gave Banbury its first Mayor.

The Town Hall was opened in October 1854. It was designed in the Gothic style of architecture and a clock tower was added in 1860. Originally it was also the town’s police station and the cells remain to this day.

It was not the first town hall, the earliest documented one was built in around 1590. The town was awarded its Charter 1608 and a second timber town hall built in the Market Place in 1633. This was replaced by a third on the same site in around 1790.

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RAF Halton

The Queen met children from the Pepper Club, which stages annual concerts to raise funding for Iain Rennie Hospice nurses, at RAF Halton near Aylesbury after she presented the base with a new colour on 31 October 1997.

The first recorded military aviation at Halton took place in 1913 when the then owner of the Halton estate, Alfred de Rothschild, invited No 3 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps to conduct manoeuvres on his land. He also allowed the estate to be used by the British Army throughout the First World War.

In 1919 Halton House on the estate became an RAF Officer’s Mess. The Grade II* listed house was built in 1881-83 by W R Rogers of Cubitts for Alfred de Rothschild, son of Baron Lionel de Rothschild, head of the British branch of the Rothschild international banking dynasty.

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Guildford Cathedral

The Queen went for a walk-about in Guildford High Street after distributing Maundy Money at Guildford Cathedral on 13 April 2006.

The cathedral was designed in 1932-3 by Edward Maufe and the foundation stone was laid in 1936. The eastern section was completed in 1939, the second stage begun in 1948, after the Second World War had delayed construction.

The nave was inaugurated by 1955, the cathedral was consecrated in 1961, and the whole building was completed in 1965.

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Christs’ Hospital School, Horsham

The Queen and Prince Philip visited Christ’s Hospital School on 2 October 2003 to unveil a commemoration stone marking 450 years since Edward VI granted the school its Royal Charter.

The School was moved from London to this site in 1902. The new school buildings were designed by the architect Sir Aston Webb. It is interesting in that they incorporate parts of the original school buildings from Newgate Street, London.

These remains that were transported from London include a portico designed by Sir Christopher Wren from c1682 and archways designed by John Shaw in 1836.

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Gatwick Airport

The Queen, escorted by British Airports Authority Chairman Sir Norman Payne, at Gatwick Airport to open the new North Terminal on 18 March 1988.

 In the late 1920s land adjacent o Gatwick Racecourse was first used as an aerodrome and a farmhouse on the was converted into a clubhouse and terminal. In 1930 the Surrey Aero Club was founded there and in 1933 the Air Ministry approved commercial flights from Gatwick. The airport continued in use throughout most of the early 20 ^th  century.

It was closed from 1956-8 for a major £7.8 million renovation. The new concrete runway was 2.1km. The site continued to develop with new terminal and other buildings added. In 1998 the main runway was extended for a fourth time to 3.3km long. In 2014 Gatwick's main runway handled a record 906 movements, equating to an aircraft taking off or landing every 63 seconds!

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Leeds Castle, Maidstone

The Queen meets a group of disabled people during a visit to Leeds Castle in Maidstone on 25 March 1981. A scheme inaugurated by the Queen allows disabled guests to visit the castle for free as guests of the Trustees.

The present castle was begun c 1119 by Robert de Crèvecoeur. It was ceded to Edward I in 1278 and remained a royal castle until 1552. In 1618 the castle was sold to Sir Richard Smythe, who built a Jacobean house on the main island.

In 1778 King George III and Queen Charlotte are entertained at the Castle. In  1821 Fiennes Wykeham Martin inherits the Castle and immediately begins construction work by demolishing the Jacobean House and building a ‘New Castle’ in a more fitting medieval style.

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Dover Watersports Centre

The Queen and the Principal of Dover Watersports Centre, John Hope, watch sailing in the channel on 20 July 2005. The Queen was in Dover to open two passenger ferry berths at the Dover Ferry Terminal.

Dover's first two drive-on drive-off ferry berths were opened in 1953. Before then all cars and even coaches had been craned on and off ferries! Since then the growth of the port of Dover continued with major expansions in the 1960s, 1970s and early 2000s.

These expansions are just a continuation of Dover’s importance as a cross channel port, which can be traced back to the Romans. Julius Caesar mentions it in his writing and the remains of a Roman lighthouse (The Pharos) built under Emperor Claudius still exist today!

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RNLI Margate Lifeboat Station

The Queen visited Margate RNLI lifeboat station where she met the coxswain, crew and families, as well as volunteers, during her visit to the town on 1 November 2011.

The first lifeboats, called Hannah and Angela, were given to the town in 1857 by a Miss Burdett Coutts. In 1898 the town opened a second lifeboat station. During its time the station has been awarded six medals, five Silver and one Bronze.

On 30 May 1940 the station sent a lifeboat to Dunkirk to help in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, amazingly it helped save some 600 soldiers. The actions of many such ‘little ships’ rescued more than 336,00 trapped soldiers in the Second World War.

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Brompton Barracks, Chatham

The Queen poses for a group photograph during a visit to the Corps of Royal Engineers at Brompton Barracks in Chatham on 13 October 2016, to celebrate their 300th anniversary.

Brompton Barracks themselves were built in 1804-6, by James Wyatt, Surveyor to the Office of Works. They are one of the largest and most impressive examples of military architecture in the country.

As such many of the buildings have been given listed status. As well as buildings for the soldiers there were also stables for 200 horses, which until after the First World War, were the army’s main form of transport.

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Canine Partners, Heyshott

The Queen smiles as she strokes a puppy being held by one of the staff at Canine Partners on 30 November 2017.

Canine Partners is a registered charity that was founded in 1990. It transforms the lives of people with physical disabilities by partnering them with assistance dogs. The dogs bring a greater independence and quality of life to their partners, offering security, companionship, and practical help with everyday household tasks.

They began to operate from this former polo yard and farm with its various outbuildings from 2003. They were able to continue training dogs whilst building a new, purpose built, centre on the site which was officially opened in 2005. They very rural setting of the centre makes it ideal for training so many dogs and providing a tranquil setting.

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