Published May 2012
Celebrating Royal Jubilees, 1809 - 2012
In this special Jubilee year, we take a look at the commemoration of major jubilees; from King George III, the first sovereign to celebrate a Golden jubilee, to the current Queen Elizabeth II, only the second monarch to mark a diamond jubilee.
King George III – Golden Jubilee 1809
The first commemorated jubilee was George III’s Golden Jubilee in 1809. In Northumberland a school for poor boys was built (1810-11) by the Duke of Northumberland to commemorate the Golden Jubilee. It became known as the Duke’s School and is now Alnwick Library . The King himself was the subject of a monument in Weymouth, where a statue of him stands. The King, in Garter robes, holds the sceptre in his right hand, and is backed by various insignia, including, to his right, the crown on a cushion, Royal Standard and Union Flag. To his left are a pile of books and a large oval shield of arms. This monument was erected in 1809-10 to the designs of James Hamilton and was restored in 2010.
Kings Statue, Promenade, Weymouth
© Crown copyright.NMR
Queen Victoria – Silver Jubilee 1862
Queen Victoria’s Silver Jubilee in 1862 was over-shadowed by the death of Prince Albert in the previous year. However, this did not deter Sir Peregrine Ackland in Nether Stowey from replacing their Market Cross with a clock tower, incorporating the bell from the earlier monument. Additional faces were installed to mark Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the centenary of the Parish Council in 1997. Victoria’s heart perhaps dwelt more on the loss of Albert than on the Jubilee, and it was fitting that Albert Park was completed in the year of the Jubilee in Abingdon. The park was designed by Mr Chapman of Dulwich in 1860 as the centre piece of a residential development. A memorial statue to Prince Albert, by John Gibbs, was erected in the park in 1865.
Prince Albert memorial, Abingdon Park
© Crown copyright.NMR
Queen Victoria – Golden Jubilee 1887
Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 was more widely commemorated with monuments. The Woolwich and Plumstead Cottage Hospital was built in the simple Queen Anne revival style in 1889, to commemorate the Jubilee, and closed in 1928. Following renovation, it was re-opened in 1962 as a day hospital. Cowley Hill Park in St Helen’s, Liverpool was re-named Victoria Park as part of the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee. The park was originally opened in 1886 in the grounds of a large former mansion called Cowley House.
Victoria Park, St Helen's, Liverpool
© Crown copyright.NMR
Queen Victoria – Diamond Jubilee 1897
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 resulted in many monuments honouring the celebration. In addition to the usual type of jubilee monuments, an art gallery was begun in Bath in 1897 and completed in 1900. Known as Victoria Art Gallery, it was designed by the noted Edwardian architect John McKean Brydon and built of Bath stone in Baroque Revival style. The ground floor became a lending library in 1912 and then an exhibition space in the 1990s. A Tram depot in Fleetwood, Lancashire was built in 1897 and known as Queen Victoria's Jubilee Tram Depot.
King George V – Silver Jubilee 1935
King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935 was most famously commemorated with the creation of the K6 ‘Jubilee’ telephone box, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott for the General Post Office. Well over 70,000 K6s were eventually produced, of which 77 are recorded in Pastscape. The imaginative phone box sculpture (entitled 'out of order') in Kingston-upon-Thames by David Mach, commissioned in 1988, is formed out of a dozen K6 telephone boxes.
K6 telephone box sculpture
© Crown copyright.NMR
Ward Jackson Park, Hartlepool was designed by Matthew Scott in memory of Ward Jackson and opened to the public in July 1883. A new shelter marked the 1935 jubilee, joining a bandstand and fountain that had been built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Ward Jackson Park, Hartlepool
© Crown copyright.NMR
Queen Elizabeth II – Silver Jubilee 1977
Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee was marked with the largest monument dedicated to a jubilee. The London Underground Jubilee Line was authorised in 1969 and inaugurated on 1st May 1979. The line was originally to be called the Fleet Line, but was renamed the ‘Jubilee Line’ by the Greater London Council in 1977. Also in London, the jubilee year saw the creation of the Jubilee Gardens in the Southbank on part of the site that had been used during the festival of Britain in 1951. Now not much more than a grassed area, it is being re-vamped for the 2012 Diamond Jubilee.
Queen Elizabeth II – Golden Jubilee 2002
The Queen Elizabeth Oak, in West Sussex, is one of the largest trees in Britain and is the biggest sessile oak in the United Kingdom. It is reputed to have been visited by Queen Elizabeth I, who is said to have been amazed at its size. It may be over 1000 years old and although now hollow it is still growing. It was one of 50 Great British Trees selected to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A new Jubilee Garden was created in Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, Plymouth for the Golden Jubilee 2002.
Queen Elizabeth II – Diamond Jubilee 2012
The 2012 Diamond Jubilee year of our Queen Elizabeth will hopefully see the creation of new monuments and sites for future Jubilee celebrations to look back on and admire their inherent historical and design interest.