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London Events for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee
London Events for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee
In 2012 The Queen celebrates 60 years since her coronation and London is marking her Diamond Jubilee with a special programme of events packed with exhibitions, processions and pagentry from a grand flotilla on the Thames to a stately procession to St Paul's Cathedral. Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne on 2nd June 1953 and it's on this weekend, 60 years later, that the main celebrations take place. Even if you're not into flag waving, you can enjoy not one but two Bank Holidays, on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th June, in honour of the landmark anniversary.
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The Queen: Sixty Photographs for Sixty Years
Windsor Castle, London, SL4 1NJ4th February 2012 - 1st January 2013
The Queen: Sixty Photographs for Sixty Years is a visual recollection of The Queen's 60 years on the throne through official and unofficial photographs of the monarch on duty and at leisure. The exhibition at Windsor Castle is one of a number of exhibitions being staged by The Royal Collection to celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, further displays include Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration and anatomy drawings by Leonardo da Vinci both exhibited at Buckingham Palace in the summer months. The Windsor Castle photos show The Queen with her beloved corgis, on state and regional visits, there are pictures of her inspecting the troops - including her grandson Prince William - and even meeting pop princess Lady Gaga. Some photographs document Her Majesty's many travels which have seen her take in 131 different countries on over 250 official visits since 1952. There are photographs showing The Queen and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in silhouette at Lady Thatcher's 80th birthday, and a striking black-and-white portrait of The Queen taken to mark her 80th birthday by fellow octogenarian Jane Bown. These 60 beautiful photographs are a wonderful way to sum up the past 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II's life.
Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration
Victoria and Albert (V & A) Museum, London, SW7 2RL8th February 2012 - 22nd April 2012
Cecil Beaton, one of the most famous fashion photographers of the 20th century, may have worked for Vogue and Vanity Fair but he also had a long standing relationship with The Queen and it's his photographs of our ruling monarch that get an airing in Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration. The Queen was a teenager when she first sat for Beaton in 1942 and this exhibition explores his interactions with her over the next three decades as he photographed her on many significant occasions including her coronation day in 1953 - an informal shot of her on that day is just one of a number of photographs which have never seen before. The unique royal portaits in this V & A exhibition are brought to life by excerpts from Beaton's diaries and letters as well as film and radio footage from the time. The exhibition is arranged in five sections documenting important sittings and charting the shift in Beaton's photographic style, from his early Rococo-inspired portraits to a starker approach in the 1960s. In one section the camera is turned around, showing portraits of Beaton himself taken by fellow photographers including Curtis Moffat, Irving Penn and David Bailey.
Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy
Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA4th May 2012 - 7th October 2012
Following on from the huge popularity of the National Gallery's blockbuster Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter At The Court Of Milan show, this exhibition at the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace offers visitors another chance to see drawings by the great Renaissance artist and inventor. This time in Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy it's his studies of the human body, owned by the Royal Collection, that are under the spotlight. Leonardo spent over twenty-five years investigating the workings of the human body and the drawings shown here represent his ground breaking research. A 1489 pen and ink study of a skull sectioned is displayed along with an intricate study of the coronary vessels and valves of the heart dating back to around 1511-13. There are fascinating annotated studies of the foetus in the womb - part of his prolonged investigation into reproduction - as well as studies of the muscles of the shoulder and arm, and the bones of the foot. This special exhibition, one of several held to mark The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, offers a rare chance to see the Royal Collection's largest ever exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's studies of the human body.
The Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle, London, SL4 1NJ10th, 11th & 13th May 2012
Over 500 horses and 800 international performers are to take part in The Diamond Jubilee Pageant in the grounds of Windsor Castle, a spectacular performance that pays tribute to 60 years of Her Majesty's reign. The pageant is just one of a number of special Diamond Jubilee events in 2012. This special event, which takes place over three evenings on 10th, 11th and 13th May, showcases dancers, musicians, military and equestrian performances from around the world. The seven acts represent different areas of the globe: Great Britain, Europe, The Americas, Australasia, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The show opens and closes in Great Britain and demonstrates The Queen's connection with horses, from her racing interests to their ceremonial significance. The colourful display includes performances by the Kremlin Mounted Cossacks, the New Zealand Defence Force Band and Maoris, and representatives of the Masai, Samburu, Luo, Kamba and Kikuyo Tribes of Africa - all reflecting The Queen's State and Commonwealth interests. In addition, a series of educational events exploring the different cultures represented in the Pageant will take place in the 'Cultural Pavilion' in the showground during the day. Tickets to the Pageant also allow access to The Jubilee Royal Windsor Horse Show which takes place in the same showground (Home Park Private) during the day. Visitors are asked to take their seats at 8.30pm for the Royal Arrival. The performance starts at 8.45pm and lasts for 90 minutes.
The Queen: Art And Image
National Portrait Gallery, WC2H 0HE17th May 2012 - 22nd October 2012
There are several exhibitions marking The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, but of these the National Portrait Gallery is staging the most daring display, bringing together sixty "remarkable and resonant" images of Elizabeth II including Chris Levine's 2004 photograph, 'Lightness of Being', a highly unusual portrait of The Queen with her eyes closed. The Queen: Art and Image shows painted portraits, official photographs and unofficial depictions of Her Majesty including works by well known artists Gilbert and George, Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter. Justin Mortimer, commissioned to create an official portrait of The Queen in 1998, likened the task to, "having to redesign the Coca-Cola logo - she's so recognised." The resulting image appears to show her head floating somewhat dislocated above her body. Here too is Lucian Freud's famously unflattering 2000-2001 painting from the Royal Collection, described as "thought-provoking and psychologically penetrating" by the then head of the National Portrait Gallery, Charles Saumarez-Smith. Among the exhibited photographers for whom The Queen sat are Annie Leibovitz, Dorothy Wilding and Cecil Beaton - including his iconic Westminster Abbey Coronation image - while photographs by Eve Arnold, Patrick Lichfield and Lord Snowdon show a less formal side to The Queen.
- National Gallery Complex, Edinburgh - 25 June-18 September 2011
- National Museums Northern Ireland - 14 October 2011-15 January 2012
- National Museum Cardiff - 4 February-29 April 2012
The Epsom Derby
Epsom Downs Racecourse, London, KT18 5LQSaturday 2nd June 2012
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will begin her Diamond Jubilee celebrations by attending The Epsom Derby on 2nd June 2012. The event is just one of a series of special celebrations marking The Queen's 60th anniversary which gives us an extended weekend break with an additional Bank Holiday on Tuesday 5th June. This famous race meeting, one of the oldest and greatest horse races in the world, was established by the Earl of Derby in 1779. It is also one of the most glamorous events in the international racing calendar. While The Derby itself takes place on the Saturday, the meeting is a two-day event with Ladies Day on Friday 1st June 2012 when The Oaks is the main event. On Derby Day the big race offers prize money of over a million pounds and attracts crowds approaching 100,000. The Queen arrives by carriage, followed by thousands of spectators in their best togs, ready to enjoy the racing which gets underway at 2pm sharp. Last year, Mickael Barzalona riding French trained Pour Moi won the Investec Derby with The Queen's horse, the 5-2 favourite Carlton House, coming in fourth - she'll be hoping she can improve on that in 2012 to mark her special 60th anniversary.
The Jubilee Family Festival
Hyde Park, London, W2 2UH2nd & 3rd June 2012
Sainsbury's is hosting a two day festival in Hyde Park this summer to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Visitors will be treated to live music and entertainment at The Jubilee Family Festival, with the highlight perhaps being a 70 minute finale on both days comprised of Disney songs and characters. Promoter Harvey Goldsmith is organising the festival, which will feature a full programme of activities including celebrity performers, equestrian events, death-defying motorbike stunts and kids' television characters. With seven giant screens showing live coverage of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on Sunday, crowds in the park will also be able to view the royal celebrations extending to the Queen's procession to St Paul's on Tuesday 5th June. The festival will showcase Britain throughout the decades, with street performers, orchestral recitals, military displays and Commonwealth dancers. Tickets are available from Seetickets and Ticketmaster from 24th February 2012 and, from 28th March, Sainsbury's customers who spend £60 in store can enter a daily ballot for free family tickets.
Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant
River Thames, WC2H 7BPSunday 3rd June 2012
On Sunday 3rd June 2012 The Queen will lead a flotilla of up to one thousand boats from the UK, the Commonwealth and around the World for The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, an event which promises to be one of the major focal points of the celebrations held on the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. The flotilla, expected to measure 7 and a half miles from end to end, will be the largest fleet of ships to be assembled on the River Thames in 350 years, continuing a royal tradition which dates back to 1533 when Anne Boleyn travelled by boat for her coronation. Over one million people are expected to line the banks of the Thames to witness the pageant which will include a diverse mix of the historic and the modern with rowed boats, sailing ships, steamers, wooden launches, canoes and Kayaks all decorated for the occasion. Thames piers, riverside roads and bridges will be closed to traffic and there will be up to fifty big screens along the route - which runs from Battersea Bridge to Tower Bridge - so members of the public can enjoy the pageant from a variety of vantage points. For families and others with children, Battersea Park is a good place to go where there will be music, a traditional funfair and special entertainment laid on. There's a cultural aspect to The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, serving as a reminder of the diversity of Britain and the Commonwealth's maritime history, but mostly people will remember it as an amazing spectacle.
Diamond Jubilee Festival at Battersea Park
Battersea Park, London, SW11 4NJSunday 3rd June 2012
On the day of the Queen's Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, Battersea Park will be host to a family friendly Jubilee Festival featuring vintage music, dance, crafts, funfair and a multitude of other entertainments. Beginning at 12 noon, in anticipation of the flotilla, and continuing until 7pm, the Diamond Jubilee Festival at Battersea Park will feature a diamond geezer pop-up pub - where every self-respecing pearly king and queen will be for a right old knees-up - and a diamond encrusted giant cake stand that will take over 1,000 diamond jubilee themed cakes which will be served with tea throughout the afternoon. Cake specialists Konditor and Cook have even created a portrait of the Queen made of 3,120 cakes, one for each week of her reign. The festival, which has been organised by designer Wayne Hemingway and artist Clare Patey who curated Feast on the Bridge for the Thames Festival, will be a memorable celebration of the Diamond Jubilee through a timeline of the six decades of the Queen's reign with music, dancing, design and plenty of opportunities for dressing up - from vintage fashions to Morris dancing. There'll be a village fete, storytelling, outdoor cinema, old fashioned steam fair, fancy dress flotilla on the Boating Lake, and a mini-musuem of royal memorabilia at the park's Pump House Gallery.
The Big Jubilee Lunch
Streets and parks in London and nationwideSunday 3rd June 2012
The fourth annual Big Lunch takes on a dual role in 2012 as it falls on the weekend we celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee on Sunday 3rd June. The great thing about The Big Jubilee Lunch is that everyone can take part, it's all about the community coming together for some patriotic flag waving, plenty of food, perhaps some music and a bouncy castle but most of all for some good old fashioned fun. Expect to see the road blockades up at a street near you as any road can be shut (provided you get permission in advance) and used as The Big Jubilee Lunch venue. The event takes place on Sunday 3rd June, the weekend when we get two back-to-back Bank Holidays on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th June, so even if your big lunch turns into a late night party you'll have a few days to recover. If you want to organise your own Big Jubilee Lunch go to www.thebiglunch.com to find out more or email info at thebiglunch.com if you have any questions. With around 10 million people taking to the streets to celebrate the 1977 Silver Jubilee, organisers are hoping for a big turn-out at the 2012 Big Jubilee Lunch.
BBC Concert at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AAMonday 4th June 2012
Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Cliff Richards and Sir Tom Jones are joined by Shirley Bassey, Madness, Annie Lennox, JLS and Jessie J as well as a host of other A-list stars for a very special concert Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace on Monday 4th June 2012. Gary Barlow, one of the organisers, has put together a fitting line-up of rock royalty - including Alfie Boe, Jools Holland, Lang Lang and Ed Sheeran - to mark the Queen's 60th year on the throne and ten thousand lucky people will get free tickets to see the concert live. The five thousand who successfully get a ticket through the ballot will be able to invite a friend, bringing the total to double that (they will notified by the end of March and tickets will be sent out at the end of May). There's also the potential for another 500,000 people to join in the fun in St James's and Green Parks and the Mall where you can watch the show on giant screens. The concert will also be televised live on BBC1 and Radio 2 for everyone to enjoy at home. The concert is one of a number of large scale events planned for the weekend of Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd June which is part of a four-day Diamond Jubilee break with two bank holidays on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th June. Check the BBC website for information on the concert and how to apply for tickets (closes 23.59 GMT Friday 2 March 2012), and The British Monarchy website for details of all the Diamond Jubilee celebrations taking place on the extended June weekend.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Beacons
Tower Of London, EC3N 4ABMonday 4th June 2012
A network of 2,012 beacons will be lit across the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Commonwealth as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Beacons which takes place on Monday 4th June 2012 marking The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The Queen herself is taking part, lighting the National Beacon in London (location yet to be confirmed) at around 10.30pm, after the televised BBC Concert at Buckingham Palace. In London, beacons will be lit on the battlements of the Tower Of London, St James's Palace, and Lambeth Palace. There is a long tradition of lighting beacons to mark royal occasions: in 1897, beacons were lit to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee - the only other British monarch to mark a Diamond anniversary; and in 1977 and 2002 beacons were also lit to celebrate the Silver and Golden Jubilees of The Queen. The London beacons will be lit at the same time as beacons at the Palace of Holyrood House Edinburgh, Killyleagh Castle in Northern Ireland, and on top of Pen Y Fan Mountain, Wales. Sixty beacons are being lit along the length of Hadrian's Wall, each representing a year in the life of the Queen's reign.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee: Service of Thanksgiving and Carriage Procession
St Paul's Cathedral, EC4M 8ADTuesday 5th June 2012
On Tuesday 5th June 2012 The Queen and other members of the Royal Family will attend a Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, one of several events being staged on the extended four-day weekend to mark The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The Queen and her close family will travel in a formal carriage procession, adding to the occasion. In choosing to mark her 60th year on the throne at St Paul's Cathedral The Queen follows in the footsteps of Queen Victoria who also chose Sir Christopher Wren's great domed cathedral to commemorate her diamond jubilee in 1897. The Queen has also celebrated her previous jubilees at St Paul's, as well as marking her 80th birthday here in 2006.
Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration
Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA31st July 2012 - 30th September 2012
This spectacular exhibition at the Ball Supper Room at Buckingham Palace shows the many ways in which diamonds have been used by British monarchs over the last 200 years. Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration is just one of a number of exhibitions organised by the Royal Collection to mark Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee including a photography exhibition at Windsor Castle and a special show of royal treasures at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Scotland, as well as a touring exhibition of ten drawings by Leonardo da Vinci which travels to five UK venues from January 2012 to January 2013. There are two exhibitions at The Queen's London residence - the Diamonds display runs alongside the Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy exhibition at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from 4th May to 7th October 2012. The spectacular Diamonds exhibition includes an unprecedented display of The Queen's personal jewels, both inherited and acquired during her reign. Highlights include the necklace and earrings made for Queen Victoria to wear at her coronation, a small crown worn by Queen Victoria for her official diamond jubilee portrait, and a Garrard Fringe brooch - remodelled from a set of diamonds given to Queen Victoria by the Sultan of Turkey. This is one of a number of pieces shown here which have undergone a transformation, their new settings revealing a fascinating history.
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